Tahu's Journal
by ToaChristor
Summary: Tahu, along with a group made up of some Glatorian, Agori, and the other Toa Nuva, are headed off north to explore the wilderness of Spherus Magna for their people. What will they find there? Find out, as Tahu's Journal chronicles it all.
1. Prologue

_**Author's Note/Disclaimer:**__ This is my own little story, called Tahu's Journal. It will be written in sort of the same format of Gali's Blog on .com, but most of what is in here is based on canon Bionicle information, and the only things I would imagine to be of my own creation are locations and possibly minor, as I used to always say (not here, on the internet) vague, background characters, like filler Agori and or Matoran. Also, important to remember, is that I'm going to be using Mistika Tahu as opposed the Stars version of Tahu. Why? Because he's better, obviously. And because it wouldn't make sense for his whole team to still have their adaptive armor, and not him. That is all I have to say._

_Bionicle's characters, locations, etc. all belong to LEGO, excluding any of said things that I create, which belong to me._

Tahu's Journal

Prologue

My name is Toa Tahu, leader of the Toa Nuva. Many months ago, my team and me achieved what we thought was our destiny. We awakened the Great Spirit, Mata Nui, who'd been asleep for a thousand years… at least, we thought we had… My team and I returned to our home, Metru Nui, believing we had accomplished what we'd been created to do. We were greeted as heroes… but we soon learned the truth to the lie we believed. Makuta Teridax, the one who'd put the curse on Mata Nui in the first place, had been planning from the beginning on this moment.

His plan, the complicated and twisted idea it was, was to become the Great Spirit himself. He'd manipulated us into thinking we were doing what we were meant to, but it had all led up to us awakening the Great Spirit, with him in control. We had thought that Mata Nui had watched us from somewhere, far from us. But we learned from Makuta, after he took power, that Metru Nui, the Matoran, our whole universe was inside of him; a gargantuan "robot." He claimed to have banished Mata Nui from the body, the robot he'd taken, to some unknown world beyond the planet outside that we'd once lived on. We could only hope that at some point, Mata Nui would find Makuta, or Makuta would find Mata Nui. He had the Mask of Life, which would be able to hopefully deal a good bit of damage to Makuta, if we could find him and get him to help.

For much of the time has passed since his rule began, we fought him in any way we could. If we could disable any of the systems throughout our world, it could have some sort of effect we could use against him. And finally, after even more time passed, we arrived on a new planet. This world turned out to be where Mata Nui was. My teammate, Takanuva, and I, escaped from the universe we once called home. We were unfortunate enough to have an army of Rahkshi follow us. On the outside, we met one of this new world's inhabitants. He went by the name, Gresh. He told us what he could about this desert planet, which he called Bara Magna. Gresh left us, to go and continue the fight. It was then that I had a strange vision; the Kanohi Ignika, which I referred to earlier as the Mask of Life, appeared before me. It transformed me, back into one of my previous forms; the one that I'd originally fought Makuta's shadow as. Shocked, I asked the Ignika why it had done this.

It ignored the question.

It then gave me some armor, made of gold, that it claimed could defeat the Rahkshi that had followed me and Takanuva. I of course wondered how simple armor could have such power. But I had learned in the past, things aren't always what they seem. Besides, when I did ask, it ignored me again. Then, as quickly as the encounter had began, it had ended. Takanuva and I attempted to use the armor, but it was blasted away, and scattered through the desert around us before we could. It didn't take us long for us to find it, but we still worried about the possibility of losing it again. As quickly as I could, I donned the armor, and I could feel the energy pulsing through me. In one swipe, I leveled Makuta's entire Rahkshi army. As I learned after the battle, this cost him. In the skies above, Mata Nui and Makuta were battling one another; Makuta in the "universe" we once lived in, and Mata Nui in one from here on Bara Magna.

The loss of his army distracted Makuta, who had used his powers over gravity to pull Bara Magna's two moons toward the planet from which they'd been separated from in a war millennia ago. Mata Nui seized the momentary window of time, and pushed Makuta into the path of one. It collided with his "head," ending his life and our universe.

The battle had ended.

I was happy to learn that, although the robot body had suffered so much damage from the collision, many of the inhabitants inside had left Metru Nui long ago, headed for the southern areas that were his "feet." There had of course been a great quake when the body struck the ground, much like, or even perhaps the same as, the Great Cataclysm the Turaga had told me about. With that, Mata Nui transformed the desert world into a green paradise, that reminded me of the island Mata Nui that me and my team defended only a year or two ago. He transformed me back as well, and with that, he was gone.

His reasoning was that our new society needed to progress without him there. We all, of course, decided to honor that wish. He _had _saved both of our worlds, so we owed him that much. But we all felt that it wouldn't be enough to repay him. All we can do now is make our new land the best we can, for the day when Mata Nui makes the choice to return.

_Stay tuned to_ _ToaChristor on deviantArt or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_And yes, I realize this chapter is long, but would you want a summary of the past few months of the Bionicle story in a boring, five word sentence?_


	2. Chapter 1

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 1

Things were almost ready for me, my team, and a few others, to head off and explore the wilderness of Spherus Magna. But it wasn't, of course, for no reason. The Matoran and Agori needed to know what was out there. Even after all the Matoran had been through in the past months, as well as what I was told about the battle between the Skrall and Agori, tensions between the different kinds were still strong. The Turaga and Agori elders had discussed it, and decided to separate the different Agori tribes and types of Matoran from one another.

"So, who will be accompanying me and the other Toa Nuva into the north, Turaga?" I asked Turaga Vakama, following him through the makeshift village of the Agori and Matoran.

"Well, the Agori elders have insisted on taking some Glatorian and or Agori guides along with you," the Turaga replied. "Although their land has been changed, they should still know how to navigate through some areas."

"Did the elders suggest anyone?" I asked him.

"Well, they mentioned two veteran Glatorian," he said. "One, from the Jungle tribe, named Vastus. And another from the water tribe; Tarix."

I hadn't met the two Glatorian before, but in my short time on Spherus Magna, I had of course heard of them; mostly from the Glatorian who had assisted me and Takanuva in the battle with the Rahkshi, Gresh.

"Is that all?"

"Actually," he continued. "There were two Agori, who asked the elders before if they could explore some of the new land themselves. They claimed to have attemped a sort of expedition into the north before, but it failed. They were named Tarduk and Crotesius."

_Agori?_ I thought. _Would it really be wise to bring any Agori on this trip?_

"Would you allow it?" Vakama asked me.

"I'm not sure… as it would be useful to have as many of this world's natives with us," I replied, "I do still feel that… it would be strange to have any form of villager with us."

"Did you not have Matoran villagers assisting your team in the battle in Karda Nui?" he pointed out.

I wanted to say that those Matoran had been in the skies, with Lewa, Kopaka, and Pohatu, but then I thought about how the two times weren't very much different. Tanma, Photok, and Solek had been helpful in the battle in the skies from what I'd heard.

"Besides, Tahu…" Vakama continued. "Those Agori have been to the north before. That is one thing that is different between them and the Glatorian."

Turaga Vakama did make a good point. "I suppose they can come," I said.

"Wonderful!" the Turaga smiled. "Now all we have to do is settle on when you set out. I'll return to the others, and we'll discuss the matter. In the meantime, I suggest you try to find the other members of your group; you'll probably want to get acquainted with them before you leave." And with that, Vakama left.

***

Three days had passed, and we were getting ready to leave the united village. The rest of my team, as well as myself, had spoken with Vastus and Tarix a few times in the past few days, as well as the Agori named Tarduk. We asked him about Crotesius, and he said he was going to be coming with us on a vehicle he built himself.

We, of course, weren't going off into the wild without any form of our own transportation. We were taking vehicles the Glatorian called "Chariots." When we first saw it, the first thing that came to my mind was the vehicle we used in Karda Nui, called the Jetrax. This vehicle looked much the same, only with the color tan, as opposed to the blue. Each also had five wheels; two on each side and one large one on the back. There were a few other differences in its build, but that's the best I can describe it.

We heard another vehicle approaching, and turned to see a Fire tribe Agori riding up to us on a small, yellow, bike-style vehicle. I assumed this was Crotesius. For whatever reason, he didn't look too enthusiastic about the trek ahead of us.

Tarduk was the first to say anything to him. "Crotesius! Good to see that you didn't back out!" Tarduk smiled.

"You know that I normally would; after our last adventure out there, I really would prefer to remain here," Crotesius replied.

"Then why exactly are you coming along?" I asked him.

"If I didn't come, I doubt Tarduk would ever let me hear the end of it. But I'd still like to see what else we could find out there," he said, pointing toward the mountains to the north. "We didn't exactly make it far the first time. Then the second trip," he now gestured to Tarduk. "He went off alone, and got stuck in a maze or something… until Mata Nui rescued him."

Mata Nui; the Great Spirit. I still had trouble believing that after all the hardships that me and my team faced, to help him, that in the end, when we finally won, he was suddenly just gone… But, I took solace in the fact that he'd claimed to return… sooner or later.

"So are we going to go or stand around here all day?" Tarduk said enthusiastically.

Lewa smiled. "He's right! C'mon! Let's go! I want to go and see-view our new homes!"

We all climbed into and onto the "chariots," except for Tarduk and Crotesius, who were seated on Crotesius's bike. I sat down on the edge of one of the chariots, Kopaka driving and Pohatu on the other side, while the others got onto theirs. Once everyone was seated and ready to go, the drivers started up the vehicles, and we were moving. Turning around, I saw the Turaga and the Agori elders waving, seeing us off. Our mission, to find better places for the Matoran and Agori to settle, was an important one, and we had just taken the first step in a long, difficult journey.

_Stay tuned to_ _ToaChristor on deviantArt or Toa Christor on this website for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	3. Chapter 2

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 2

We were nearing the northern boundary of the already known area of Spherus Magna. Once we passed it, what we would face was a mystery to anyone. There had, of course, been small groups sent out to explore before us, but we were taking the bigger job of exploring the mountains and beyond, while they simply checked out the area that many of them previously called home.

We kept moving until we reached the base of the mountains. We now faced a problem: a very high peak. Crotesius's vehicle would have a lot of trouble traversing it, and I assumed that the chariots would as well. We would either have to find a smaller mountain, or a way around this one. In the end, we decided to wait for the morning; we'd been travelling all day, and the sun was setting. If we did find the path we needed tonight, we'd probably not notice it in the dark. We set up a sort of camp, lined by the chariots and the Crotesius's Cendox, and went to sleep for the night to rest up for the day ahead.

***

The sun rose, and we got ready to set off again.

"To find a path faster," Tarix began, "We'll be splitting up. Six of us can head to the east corner of the mountain…" He pointed to the east. "And the other five will head west," gesturing in the opposite direction.

"The groups will be five of your team," Vastus said to me. "And one of us. Then the other two Nuva will go with Tarduk, Crotesius, and the remaining Glatorian."

"Sounds good to me," I said, looking around at the others.

We divided up, and the two members of my team that went west were Takanuva and I. We saw each other off, and headed in either direction. Vastus was the Glatorian who came with us. While we were on the move, he told us off the history of the planet, along with a story with many more details about Mata Nui's actions here.

"It is thanks to him that a few of us Glatorian gained powers similar to your own," Vastus went on. "He used that strange mask to enhance our weapons, giving them access to the elements."

"It doesn't surprise me," I said. "The Ignika was a very powerful artifact. It's what saved Mata Nui's life on two occasions; once according to the Turaga's stories, and the time Toa Matoro used it not long ago."

"Look!" Takanuva said, pointing forward and ending our conversation.

He was pointing at a small, green area, right between the mountain we were circling, and another one next to it. We approached it, and found it to be a sort of valley between the peaks. We left the vehicles to go ahead and check it out. We spent what felt like a half an hour there, observing the small clearing.

We returned to the vehicles and reported the findings. This seemed to be the passage we were looking for. We would have to remove a few of the trees growing there though for the chariots to fit through. Tarduk and Crotesius turned around on the Cendox and zoomed off to find the others. Vastus, Takanuva, and I remained behind to start clearing the area.

***

After another half an hour, the two Agori returned, with the others following them. We had cleared the space, and told them about it, along with what they should do to get through. We all boarded our chariots, and started on our way. Any other trees we may have missed before were no problem, and were cleared by Takanuva or me before the others reached it.

Some time passed before we realized that this pass may possibly lead farther through the mountains than we assumed. We came to another section entirely that still had many trees filling the area. We had to stop the trip, so that we could clear more of the area for the vehicles.

Finally, after a few hours more of clearing trees, moving on, then clearing more trees, we reached the end of this clearing. It ended in a much larger, but rockier valley. This one had fewer obstacles in it, and was much wider, but there was little to no green in it. It was nearly all stone and dirt. We continued on through the gray valley, the few of us who'd been clearing the trees finally able to rest, when suddenly there was a yell from the back of the formation.

I jumped up, and towards the end, my rotator-blade and ghost-blaster at the ready. Suddenly, something struck my back. I stiffened and fell a few feet from the air to the ground. A few yards away was Kopaka, lying on his back with his blaster to on the ground to his side. I slowly got up and looked around the area, trying to spot the enemy that had come from nowhere. I saw nothing but my downed team-mates, and the ones still standing trying to fight the invisible opponent. I struck again, this time in the front. I still couldn't identify the weapons being used on us as projectiles or melee weapons, but I did know that we had to figure out how to stop this.

***

Omniscient P.O.V.

Kopaka was lying on the ground, confused about what was happening. His weapon was on the ground a few feet away. He stood up, trying to keep his balance despite the pain in his side where he was struck. He looked around, activating his Kanohi Akaku to try to spot the enemy. It was a successful attempt, as he saw five other figures, which'd obviously been camouflaged. He also saw the Toa and Glatorian getting struck by them without a chance to defend themselves. He noticed that the attackers transformed into rocks that looked like they had been in the environment around them the whole time right after they attacked, and when their prey turned away, they shifted again, into their true form. The final thing he noticed were Tarduk and Crotesius, running through the middle of the "battlefield," yet not being attacked like the others.

_The question is, _he thought to himself. _Why? Why aren't they being attacked like everyone else… everyone else… but me?_

He hadn't noticed until now, but he had been up for a good minute or two, and hadn't taken a single blow. He felt the pain in side from the first one, still, but hadn't been attacked again since he got up.

_So what's different about me and the two Agori? _he contemplated. _The two of them aren't Glatorian, or Toa… but I am… so what sets the three of us apart from the others?!_

Now Kopaka was getting frustrated. He still saw no reason why the invisible opponents would attack the other Toa, leaving him out for whatever reason. He glanced over at his Midak Skyblaster, and looked down at his hands. He looked around the valley again, and that's when it hit him. That's when he realized why the attackers were leaving him and the Agori be.

***

Tahu's P.O.V.

I was injured, and bad. I wasn't sure how many more hits I could take, and wondered the same about everyone else. I looked around again, and saw Kopaka standing once again. He had a look on his face, though; he had an idea.

"Everyone! Quick! Drop your weapons!" he yelled out to us.

I looked at him like he was crazy, as did the others. Why would we abandon our weapons when we needed them to fight?

"Trust me!"

Reluctantly, I lowered my blaster to the ground, and then followed suit with my rotator-blade. I looked around, and saw that the others were just as eager to do as Kopaka said as I was. But, we all did so in the end.

A moment passed, then a minute. After what felt like ages, no more attacks were made. Everyone was left standing, and whatever strange force it was that had attacked us was either gone, or waiting.

Pohatu was the first to say anything. "Brother… are they gone?"

I could see Kopaka activating his Akaku, and looking around the area.

"They've left, yes," Kopaka replied.

"How did you know; that all we had to do was disarm ourselves?" Gali asked him.

"If you noticed, I lost my Skyblaster in the battle," Kopaka began. "I got up, leaving it on the ground, and surveyed the situation. I noticed that Tarduk and Crotesius," he gestured to the Agori, "weren't under attack. It took me a moment to figure out why the three of us were being left alone. And when I noticed my blaster again, it hit me."

Lewa clapped, though you could see that he'd taken some nasty hits in the fight because of it. "Well done, Ice-Brother!"

"Vastus, Tarix," I started. "Do either of you two know what those things were?"

"I apologize Tahu," Tarix said. "But I know as much as you do here."

"Same here," said Vastus.

I sighed. This was the sort of thing that we had been sent here to find out. We needed to find out exactly what those creatures were, or they could be a danger to Agori and Matoran in the area. But from what Kopaka said, those things were gone by now. If we wanted to learn anything more, we'd have to find it at another point in our journey. The most we could do at the moment was keep heading north, to see what other surprises awaited us…

_Stay tuned to_ _ToaChristor on deviantArt or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	4. Chapter 3

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 3

We had all healed from our fight with the invisible enemy, and we were still trying to figure out what exactly those things were. But what confused us most was that they didn't attack us when we were disarmed. Why? That would have been the perfect time to strike.

But forgetting that, we were nearing what looked to be the end of the mountain range through which we were travelling. Two weeks we'd been headed through this mountainous region, half of the first spent (as we later found out) going around in a circle. Finally, we'd be able to see something more interesting than rocks, rocks, and, how surprising, more rocks.

We were also glad to finally be getting out of the mountains because since our battle, we'd all had the feeling of... of being watched, but were unaware of if it was those things again, or something perhaps even worse.

Finally, we came to the beginning of a large plain at the edge of the range. For kios, we could see grass being pushed by the wind, leaves floating on the breeze from who knows how far away, and even a few large Rahi-like creatures, that the Glatorian called, "Rock Steeds." They said that normally, those creatures were tamed, and not found in the wild, but assumed that they had perhaps escaped the Skrall city of Roxtus months before, making their way here.

We set up our camp for the night, lining the edges with the vehicles as we had the other times. After a few hours, we were all preparing for the night's sleep, when suddenly, a projectile flew into the center of the camp, to the fire, and exploded. We were all blown back, and the fire had been forced out farther from the fire pit. Cinders reached some of our tents, but we didn't notice that until they'd caught aflame. Our attention was turned to the peaks right at our backs, watching for the attackers.

Out of the valley marched a black wave, made up of beings that, by now, we all recognized.

Tarix was the first to say anything. "Skrall..."

Behind them were a group of their Agori followers, Atakus. Each Skrall was armed with blades and launchers, and the Atakus with blades of their own. We were surprised to see that they didn't seem like the bands of rogues they'd become since the battle between them and the Agori. They were more like an organized attack squad.

Another blast flew into camp, hitting the fire again, and spreading it even more than it already had. This was when we first noticed the tents.

"Tarix! Gali! Put out those fires!" I ordered. "Lewa! Vastus! You too!"

The four of them rushed to the tents, while the Agori boarded the Cendox and a chariot. The remaining Toa Nuva and I got on the defense, keepin our eyes out for whatever the Skrall were firing.

A gigantic, green and black figure walked up through the lines of Skrall, followed by a black and red, spiky one.

"Greetings, Glatorian. I am Tuma, master of the Skrall," he said. Tuma was the one we'd been told had been beaten in combat by Mata Nui, who'd been a rookie fighter at the time. I saw this as an easy fight.

"Hello then, Tuma," I said. "I am Tahu, leader of the _Toa Nuva _and this small group of explorers."

Something ticked him off. The second I said Toa, his faced changed immediately. He'd obviously heard it before, from the only person I could guess right away...

"Toa?! There are more of you?! Well... at least now I will be able to unleash my rage on your kind, at last!" He rushed toward me, and I jumped into the air, gliding over him. I landed behind him, throwing my rotator blade for his back.

Bad move.

He spun around, faster than I'd think someone his size could, and snatched it out of the air. He threw it back, faster than I could react, hitting me in the chest. I fell backward, and he rushed forward. Kopaka ran up behind him, lashing out at his back with his bayonette. The Spiky Skrall tackled him from the side, while the other Skrall ran at the rest of the team and our camp.

Suddenly, more of those projectiles flew through the air, slamming into the ground around us and exploding immediately. They blew everyone, even the Skrall, backwards, but knocking only my team down. Tuma ran at me with his sword in the air, bringing it down on my head.

I rolled out of the way, tossing a fireball at Tuma. It hit him in the chest, causing him to stagger back. I took my rotator blade, and ran at him. I also took the time to look around at the others, to see that Kopaka's opponent had disarmed him, and was running at him now with a large, spiky club. I threw my rotator blade at the Skrall, hitting him in the side and knocking him over. Kopaka grabbed his blaster and my blade, throwing it back to me. I caught it, and ran for Tuma again.

The master of the Skrall was up again, and had his sword and shield at the ready. I swung my rotator blade at him, but he sidestepped and grabbed my arm. He spun me around in the air and threw me into the burning camp. Gali, Lewa, Tarix, and Vastus were hopelessly trying to put out the fire, so I ordered them to forget it and help the others. In the distance, I saw the dust clouds from the Agori running away.

I turned back around to face Tuma, calling on my control of fire. I began to absorb all the fire I could from the camp around me, converting it into much needed energy. Once I'd taken all I could, I flew at Tuma, creating a huge fireball as I went.

Soon, the fireball was nearly half his size. That would be just enough for the blow I hoped to land in just a few short seconds.

_Now, I do realize that many people have speculated Tuma as being dead. In my mind, that is not the case. It would be pathetic for him to die just because of one little stab in the back. So here he is, everyone!_

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	5. Chapter 4

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 4

I flew at Tuma as fast as I could, using every ounce of my power to add to the fireball I had created. I pulled it back, preparing for the throw, and then launched it at him with what strength I had left. He held up his shield, trying to deflect it. Of course, his attempt failed. He was blown backward and off his feet. He fell to the ground, and slid a good few feet back. I fell the to the ground, losing the short bit of space I had between me and the ground. I skidded to a halt a few feet from where I fell, right in front of Tuma.

He slowly rose back to his feet; unsteady, but he still managed to get up. He stepped over to me, raising his sword and glaring at me. I was barely able to move. Just as he brought down his blade, someone ran over and deflected it with theirs. Lewa was standing over me, holding back Tuma. He launched a blast of air at Tuma, knocking him back to the ground. Lewa helped me up, and helped me get to one of the chariots. Vastus was sitting in the driver's seat, and Lewa placed me on the side, making sure I wouldn't fall off.

He tied me to the "wing" with a rope.

He ran back into the battle, and Vastus and I sped off. I looked toward the former camp, to see the flames spreading again, and the others all fighting Skrall. I turned back to face where me and Vastus were going, and saw tracks on the ground. We wwere following the Agori's trail.

Something shook the side, nearly knocking us over. Vastus and I turned to see two Atakus armed with thornax launchers riding up alongside us on Rock Steeds. They fired thornax that exploded on contact with the chariot. Vastus took his own launcher, and fired a few thornax at their Rock Steeds. Each one was hit, and toppled over, though the Atakus continued to fire at us.

More Atakus soon showed up, approaching from the front. They'd been hiding in the hills alongside the plain we were crossing, waiting for the time to ambush. I'd expect that if they were already here, they'd have attacked Crotesius and Tarduk as well, but they also could've arrived after they passed. They fired more thornax, also explosive. I activated my Kanohi Hau to deflect them, but even though they didn't pass through the barrier, the explosions still shook the vehicle. I noticed that some, small, fragile looking parts broke off the chariot, and I could only hope that they weren't important.

Vastus avoided as many as he could, but all the activity still disrupted my focus and got rid of our shield. Each time I tried making a new one, something kept me from doing so, whether it was Vastus's driving skills or the onslaught on our chariot. The Atakus eventually ran out into the open, hoping to get a better shot. This was a mistake. They ran into the plain, and Vastus used an old trick from the book to start making them firing at one another, maneuvering around them, and drawing their fire in the direction of other Atakus. After a few minutes of this, Vastus had dealt with them all, most of them that way, and the others by running them over.

***

After another hour or so, we arrived at the new "camp," under an overhang in a hill. After a few hours, I'd had time to gather my strength back. As much as I'd hated running from the fight, I would've only gotten killed if I stayed. We were now waiting for the others to catch up. We just hoped that the Skrall hadn't been able to win...

Finally, after a good while of waiting, we saw the dust cloud of the other chariots approaching. We stepped out of the overhang we were under, getting ready to greet them when the arrived at our new "camp." When they noticed us, they sped up, approaching the overhang even faster.

***

Omniscient P.O.V.

This was bad. Very, very, very bad. Tarix and the Toa Nuva had managed to beat the Skrall, which was good. But, it was all a pointless victory after what they'd managed to do.

While all of them were fighting, nearing the end of the battle, a few of the Atakus who'd been firing at them made their way into camp. They snuck past all of the distracted fighters, and made their way to the chariots. They each jumped into one, and the Skrall abandoned their opponents and ran for the vehicles. The Toa and Glatorian were, at that time, confused as to why they were headed for _their _vehicles, rather than whichever they'd used to traverse the mountains. But, it was all made clear when they saw the Atakus in control of each.

They all ran after the Skrall in a desperate attempt to retake the chariots, but were too slow, and the enemy rode off before they could catch up. The Skrall sped off, heading in the same direction as the others. They all kicked themselves, watching helplessly as the enemy headed off after their friends to ambush them.

They'd surely follow the trail of the the Agori, Tahu, and Vastus, and when those four saw the chariots coming, they'd expect their allies. The four of them would quickly realize the truth, of course, when they came under fire.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	6. Chapter 5

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 5

They grew nearer and nearer, speeding up as the distance between shrank. I turned to look at Vastus, but saw his face change from a welcoming expression to a fearful one. I turned back, looking at the chariots again, and I noticed, finally, what could've done that to him.

The Skrall were aboard our vehicles.

"Crotesius! Your Cendox has weapons, right?" I called to him.

"Well, just a Thornax launcher mounted on the front," he said. "Why?" He peeked out from under the overhang, and looked to the horizon. He saw the Skrall approaching as well. He ran back, and jumped onto his Cendox, getting ready to ride out and try to deal with them. But before he even got his vehicle moving, they reached us.

Two chariots drove right past me and Vastus, nearly running us down. We dove out of the way, and down to the ground right as they passed. Tarduk ran out from under the overhang, and grabbed onto the back of one.

He climbed along its side to the front, avoiding Skrall fire as he went. He pushed one Skrall off, and managed to pull the Atakus driver. He dropped into the driver seat, and did a maneuver to throw the other Skrall on the chariot off.

The second chariot flew by again, heading towards Crotesius on the now moving Cendox. Crotesius pulled the vehicle up into a wheelie, aiming the Thornax in the direction that would normally be straight up. But the Thornax flew out of the launcher, and straight into the face of the Atakus driver of that chariot.

Crotesius put his vehicle back to the ground, headed for the the thrid and final chariot ahead of him, while the one he'd just hit spun out of control, and into the side of the overhang. The rocks fell down, burying that chariot, as well as the one Vastus and I had used just a while ago to escape the battle.

The members off the Rock Tribe soon crawled out, still looking like they wanted a fight. Suddenly, Crotesius and the other chariot rode by, right between me and Vastus. At the wheel of the last stolen chariot was the spike-covered Skrall, Stronius, and on the sides, two more Skrall. Lastly, on the back, was none other than Tuma. As they went past, Tuma looked down and glared at me, his helmet burned to a cirsp from my attack earlier.

Tarduk drove in on the other chariot, ramming into the side of the last stolen one. All of the Skrall, save Stronius, were thrown off, into the dirt. Tuma was the only one who landed on his feet, and came running for me. Though he still looked weakened from the fight, he also looked like he could still do some damage.

I turned and noticed that the Rock Tribe members who'd been buried in the overhang were now digging out the two chariots underneath, and they'd already uncovered the backs.

"Vastus! Secure the buried chariots!" I yelled to him. "Don't let them steal them again!"

He nodded, running to the rock pile, and began to blast the Skrall with Thornax and Air blasts. I turned back to Tuma, raising my own weapons, preparing for round two.

He slashed at me wildly, mostly missing and just splitting the air around us. I threw an uppercut into his chest, and he doubled over. I took a few steps back as he rose up again, this time just standing there, making a plan. Finally, he ran at me again, but faked me out and sidestepped at the last minute. He swung his sword into my side, and then swung it again, throwing me to his other side.

I fell to the ground, and rolled a couple inches, then turned and got up again. I pulled back my rotator blade, to fake a throw, and then run forward, slashing it at him. But, he saw through my attempt to trick him, and ran forward. He threw a round house kick at me, but I stepped back and avoided it. But just as soon, he dropped his sword on top of my head.

I fell forward to the ground, this time just lying there. He aimed his Thornax launcher, preparing to fire it into the center of my back. Just as he fired, I rolled out of the way, pushing myself back to my feet once I was to his side, and then firing my own blaster at him. He was blown back, and into another nearby overhang. It collapsed on top of him, burying him like the chariots.

I didn't want to be around if he managed to get out, and ran toward Vastus and the buried chariots. I reached them, to see many of the Skrall on the ground, defeated, with Crotesius and Tarduk riding around them on the Cendox and in the chariot, and Vastus standing in the center of the circle fighting the still standing Skrall.

I jumped in, landing on top of a Skrall as I did so, and used my blaster to finish off the other few who remained. The chariots had been undug, so the rocks that had covered them were strewn about the area. We walked toward them, jumping into the driver's seats when we reached them.

"We'll have to go back and get the other Toa and Glatorian, but if we each drive a chariot, with Crotesius aboard his beloved Cendox, we'll have to leave a chariot behind," Tarduk pointed out.

"Hey!" Crotesius yelled back to him. "My Cendox isn't my 'beloved!'"

"Then leave it behind," Tarduk smirked.

"...I actually... think I'll hang on to it..." Crotesius replied, essentially proving Tarduk's point.

"Just leave it," I said, stopping their argument. "The others are far more important than a single vehicle, and we'll still have space for all of them on the remaining three chariots."

Everyone nodded, and we turned back toward the mountains, and toward where the others were. We set off, once again, and retraced our tracks, headed for the former camp.

Soon our team would be reunited again. At least, it would be if the Skrall hadn't done away with them all, and had only taken the vehicles to make a fast escape.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	7. Chapter 6

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 6

In the distance, the others began coming into view. We weren't as close to the camp as we'd expected to be when we noticed them, but they had probably been walking or running toward us.

As we moved closer, we saw their weapons raised, but when we got even closer, they lowered them, realizing we weren't the Skrall. We pulled up the chariots beside them, and stopped.

"Please explain..." I started. "Why we were greeted by Skrall in OUR vehicles?"

"Well, you see, brother..." Pohatu said, "we were fighting those Skrall, and while our attention was turned, the Atakus managed to take the chariots..."

"We would've chase-followed them, but we'd used all of our energy fight-battling the Skrall," said Lewa.

"Fair enough..." I sighed. "But leaving that subject, get on. We've got to get moving again."

They all hopped onto the chariots, whether on the back or the wings, and soon we were back on the move. After an hour or so, we passed the battle field of the fight with the Skrall, where we took back the chariots. We weren't surprised to see the Skrall all gone, having taken the chariot we'd left behind as well. The sun was falling behind the hills, so we stopped once more near the overhang. We couldn't use the same one, however, it having been knocked down in the battle.

Our shelters having been burned earlier, we simply laid out whatever cloths we could find underneath the overhang. Tarduk and Crotesius drifted off quickly, but the rest of us couldn't fall asleep, expecting the Skrall to show up again.

When the sun rose again the next morning, we gathered up the few things we took out, and packed them away. Then we quickly got moving again. After a few hours of travelling, we left the plains and came across, strangely, a jungle. Getting nearer, the land around it began to turn into a swamp, with rivers flowing along the east and west edges.

We came to the edge of the jungle, and stopped. We made our plan, to send in Tarduk, Vastus, and Lewa first, as they knew what may be found in a jungle. The rest of us weren't as familiar.

"When we return," Vastus said. "We'll tell you what we can about the jungle, and what would be the best way through. But keep in mind, if what we find is... unpleasant... we'll probably choose to go around, like we did with the mountains to the south."

"And what if you don't come out for some time?" Gali asked them. "Should we follow?"

"If we don't come back out by the nightfall," Vastus said. "Then yes, come in. Tahu could easily create a light source so you'd see where you'd be going."

It was about noon now, so they'd have plenty of time to try finding a path through the jungle. We saw them off, as they made their way through the thick foliage along the edge of the jungle, disappearing into the shadows under the trees. We found a dry area among the swampy ring around the jungle, and set up our camp.

***

Omniscient P.O.V.

Vastus, Lewa and Tarduk drove slowly through the jungle. They had to take their time making their way around the trees, and a few times, got stuck in the mud or in between the trees. So far, other than the terrain, they hadn't met any obstacles that could cause huge problems

They came to a lake, that was somehow filled with fresh water, and not swamp water. All three walked up to observe it, confused. The water was clear; they could see the bottom of the lake's shallow edges, and the fish swimming in the water.

Tarduk reached for the water, but Lewa held him back.

"Don't get too close," he said. "I've seen lots of odd-strange things throughout my adventures... and I can tell, there's something not right here."

"He's right," Vastus agreed. "This water should be as dirty as the swamp around it; with all this mud, it would have to have seeped in and filled it."

"Maybe the fish keep it clean," Tarduk shrugged. "No one ever found anything out about nature by standing around and saying to be cautious."

"Even so..." Lewa started. "I can tell, I just know that something's wrong-different with this water!"

The lake stretched out very far from where the trio was standing, probably a good few kios, with the depth much the same. Looking out, toward the center of the lake, the three of them spotted an island.

They started circling the water body, looking for a possible path to the island in the center. If they could find out more about this lake, it would be a perfect place for the Jungle Tribe or the Le-Matoran to set up a village or two.

They came to the northern edge of the lake, when they found what they were looking for. There was a long strip of land reaching out toward the island, that ended close enough that one could jump from there to the island.

They made the crossing, leaving the vehicle back at the beginning of the 'peninsula' landing on the island in the lake's center, then rounded back to the southern edge they'd been looking at a few minutes ago. There was a small cavern on the side they now stood on.

"Tarduk," Vastus started. "Head back to the others. Tell them of this find, and bring them here."

"Alright," he said, running back to the chariot as Lewa and Vastus entered the cave. Tarduk went back the way they'd come, as the Toa and the Glatorian entered the darkness...

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_To the readers who've enjoyed this so far, sorry so much is in 3rd person. I just got sort of caught up in writing that part, and adding more 1st person would've made it a little too long in my view._


	8. Chapter 7

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 7

The sun was beginning to set, and they still hadn't come out of the jungle. We were getting ready to go in after them, when Tarduk approached through the foliage in the chariot.

"Tarduk," Kopaka asked him as he rode out of the trees. "Where are Lewa and Vastus?"

"We found something..." Tarduk said. "Something... not right. They sent me here, to get you."

"Well, what was it?" Pohatu asked.

"We found some sort of lake... entirely freshwater, and full of life, in the middle of the swampy jungle," he replied. "It didn't fit in with the enviroment all around it, so we started to investigate it. Eventually, after rounding the whole thing, we found a kind of landbridge, that led out to an island at the center."

"is that all?" I said.

"Well on the island, there was a cave. They went in to see if it could've told us anything about the water. Then, they sent me here."

"Fresh water surrounded by swamp... that is odd," Gali said. "And I know water."

"Alright then," I said. "Let's go then." We boarded the chariots, and pulled them up to the jungle's edge. "Lead the way, Tarduk."

He turned his chariot around, and drove slowly back into the trees, all of us following behind. We passed swiftly by all the trees they'd gone by, them having cleared parts of the path and marking their trail. After what I estimated as a half an hour or so, we came to the lake he'd spoken of.

"It's so clear..." Takanuva said. "I've never seen anything like this."

It was a strange sight, to look around at the thick jungle around us, full of trees and mud, with rivers that looked to be filled with pollution, and then to see this pure water full of fish, with the bottom of the lake in perfect view.

"I don't like the looks of this," Kopaka said.

"You shouldn't brother," Gali said to him. "This water shouldn't be like this. There's some other force at work here."

Pohatu went off of the subject. "Tarduk, is that where the cave is?" he asked, pointing to what looked like a mound of sand and stone at the lake's center.

Tarduk nodded. "Yeah, that's it." He began to drive around the lakeshore, leading us to the other side, and the 'bridge'.

We left the vehicles back on the shore, and began to cross the path toward the island. It took only a moment, and we were soon by the cavern. Crotesius approached it, cautiously looking in.

"I can't see the end of it," he said. "Though from what I can see, it looks like it goesdown; pretty deep, too."

"Tarduk, how long ago did Lewa and Vastus go down there?" I asked Tarduk.

"Well... when we left all of you, it was about noon," he said. "And we got to this lake, I'd guess, about four hours or so later."

"But it only took us about two."

"Yes, but we knew the path this time," he said. "Last time, it was all a big gamble; we didn't know what exactly we were gonna find."

"Alright, so they've been in there for four hours?"

"Unless they left, yes."

"If they'd left though, they'd have waited for us... or we'd have passed them on the way here." I said. "So, I guess we're heading down."

We spent some time planning, and decided in the end to leave someone at the entrance, in case they ended up coming back out. Gali, Kopaka, and Crotesius stayed behind, while the rest went down into the cave, including myself.

"Takanuva, take the lead; you can light up the path for us," I told him. "Onua, take up the rear; your vision in the dark is better than ours, so I want you keeping an eye out for anyone or anything following us."

We lined up as I'd said, with me following Takanuva, then Tarix, Tarduk, and Pohatu, with Onua at the end. We said our goodbyes to the others, and walked into the darkness, ready to face what we might.

We followed that tunnel for about a half an hour, before it came to an end. It split of into two paths; one that continued forward, and one that went off to the right. Takanuva created a sphere of concentrated light and set it down in the middle of the crossroads, so we could consider our next move.

"If the path went straight forward," I started. "They may've followed the wall, and kept on going that way. If they had any lightsource, it would had to have been weak, and they may not have even seen the other path."

"That is a good assumption," Tarix said. "But what if they did take the right way? Then we'd be following a trail that wasn't there."

"Hm... maybe there's some sort of sign they left behind for-"

"Tahu! Come look!" Onua yelled.

I ran over to the path that went straight forward from where we'd come. "What is it? What did you find?"

He pointed to the wall, where there was a marking carved into it. "That symbol! Look at it!"

I held a fireball up to the wall so I could see what he meant.

"Well... looks like we know which way we're going," I said, as I looked at a carving of Lewa's Toa Nuva Symbol. "Onua, are there any other signs they went this way?"

He crouched down, squinting at the ground. After a moment, he stood back up.

"There are tracks in the dust," he said. "They go forward, but there are none coming back. So, they went forward..."

"But never came back," I finished. "Well, at least now we know we're not down here for nothing. Everyone line up, we're gonna get moving."

We lined back up, in the same formation as before. This time though, Onua and I had swapped spots, with me at the end of the line. We started moving, but then I heard something and stopped, looking back at the room we'd just been in.

"What is it, brother?" Pohatu asked me.

"It's probably nothing..." I said. "I just... just heard a small sound, is all."

"Alright... but think about it; it may later be something significant. Lewa did, long ago, point out to us, that whenever we go underground, we usually end up... unlucky."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "And that proves again to be right, as it would seem; he is, as far as we can tell, lost down here."

Pohatu smiled and nodded, then turned back around. I looked once more at the crossroads, hoping that whatever I'd heard wouldn't be anything to worry about. I turned and faced the back of the group once more, and we were back on our way.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_Also, an other on this site, by the name of The Rahkshi Writer, pointed out to me that Atakus is a single Rock Tribe Agori, not the whole of them. So, for that, I have to say... disregard the fact that I called them that. Just... think of them all as just the Rock Tribe Agori. DO IT! The amazing ToaChristor/Toa Christor commands you!!!_


	9. Chapter 8

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 8

"Lewa, duck!" Vastus yelled as he fired a blast at the creature behind the Toa of Air.

"Vastus, we have to find the entrance! We have to get out!" Lewa said, running over to him.

"You don't think I know that already?!"

The monster rushed at them, nearly hitting them as they jumped out of it's path. It hit the wall, dissolving into a multitude of small insects when it did. They scattered across the room, going after the Toa and Glatorian.

Lewa jumped up into the air. He flew over and grabbed Vastus. He picked him up off the ground, and flew toward the exit of the room once he had. The insects followed them from below, beginning to merge together once more. Lewa flew through the exit, and Vastus launched a blast of air at the doorway, causing it to collapse.

The half-formed beast couldn't finish its fusion; half was stuck on one side of the blocked exit while the other was free to pursue Lewa and Vastus. It began to move forward, the small insects that had merged on the other side crawling under the blockade as it did, then rushing to finish the transformation.

"I really hope-wish we can outrun that thing," Lewa said.

"You and me both," Vastus replied. "Just keep going. We need to put as much distance as we can between that thing and us."

***

Tahu's P.O.V.

We had passed through multiple crossroads like the one we'd seen at the beginning of this labyrinth. We continually found signs of Lewa and Vastus's path, following them each time. We eventually came to a stop at one of them, hoping to get a good long rest before we continued on.

Takanuva lined the room with concentrated spheres of light, just as he'd been doing for most of the search.

"Alright. If we keep following the markings left by those two," I said. "We'll eventually have to catch up to them."

"If they aren't dead, that is," Tarduk pointed out.

"Er... yes... if they're not dead..." I said. "But... why not think positive? Why not go forward on the mindset that they're alive, as they probably are?"

"Just pointing out a possibility," he shrugged.

After about a half an hour, we were back on the move. The paths seemed to get more complicated, with curves, stairs going up and down, and more and more tunnels at every chamber.

"Isn't this place amazing?" Onua said. "So much detail... its almost like an entire island's worth of Onu-Matoran were working down here for years and years!"

"I find that hard to believe," Pohatu said. "With no lightstones, or any other light source, who would possibly have made this place to live down here?"

"Perhaps it was an animal or some sort," Tarix said. "All creatures have their own habitat, perhaps this belonged to one of them. They may not have needed the light; that would explain that part at least... but then comes Onua's point about all the detail, to make these smooth walls, complex paths..."

"Who knows how it got here," Tarduk said. "Maybe it was the doing of the Great Beings. That would make sense."

"It doesn't matter HOW it got HERE. Just that WE get OUT," I said. They all looked at me in an odd way. "What?"

"What? What do you mean, 'what'?" Takanuva said to me. "Doesn't a mystery like this one fascinate you?"

"No, it doesn't," I replied. "The only 'mystery' I care to figure out is if we'll get lost down here or not."

He shook his head, and the others did the same. We turned back to the path, focusing once more on what we were here to do. Suddenly, Onua stopped us.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure..." he said. "Tahu, you said earlier you heard something. What did it sound like?"

"Idunno... something like insects, a bunch, running across the ground," I told him. "Why?"

He turned back around, looking in the direction from which we'd come. "Because... I think I heard it too."

I walked to the back of the line where he was standing once again. I held up a fireball to see better into the darkness, and I saw something very, very wrong.

The shadows behind us were moving. Moving toward us.

I threw a fireball into the swarm of... whatever they were, but it seemed to bounce right back, like they had some sort of armor on them.

"Go! Go!" I yelled to everyone, and we began running forward, away from the bugs.

We didn't pay attention to the markings that showed Lewa and Vastus's path anymore, we just ran as fast as we could to get away from the bugs. I prayed that going off track wouldn't be too big a problem in the near future. That is, if we had a near future.

We threw whatever we could at them; Pohatu threw stones, Onua raised the earth to try to block them, Tarix fired water, and we used all of our blasters, to do whatever damage we could. But no matter what we threw at them, they seemed to be some sort of big, armored beast.

Some of the insects broke off from the rest of the pack, headed even faster for us than the rest. They rushed up to Tarduk's foot, and pulled him to the ground with their combined strength, then began pulling him toward the swarm.

"Agh!!" Tarduk yelled. "Help! Help!!"

I tossed my rotator blade at the bugs pulling him into the swarm, and while it broke him loose from them, they pulled it into the pack. They threw it back out, the edges filled with bite marks from their pincers.

I grabbed it as fast as I could, and ran back to the others, pushing Tarduk forward and away. Then, the bugs did something none of us expected.

They seemed to... to fuse together, and to merge into some giant beast. They weren't just standing on top of eachother, like Vastus had told me a bunch of Scarabx did in their battle with the Skrall. The bugs in this swarm all actually became one.

"What.... what are those things?!" Pohatu cried.

"Idunno, Pohatu..." I said. "But I think we solved the mystery of what may've made these tunnels."

And that just proves that we would've been better off not knowing the answer to that question.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	10. Chapter 9

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 9

I jumped up, barely avoiding a mass of bugs trying to get at my feet. I fired some flames behind me, pushing myself forward, and away from the insects. Our group made a sharp turn, through a passage with a doorway.

"Close it!" I yelled. "We need some time!"

As fast as we could, we pushed the doors closed, and cut ourselves off from the bugs. At least, for a little while.

"Tarix," I started. "Tarduk... do either of you know what those things could be?"

"Well," Tarduk said. "I have a theory... I've heard stories, before, about creatures fitting those... things's description."

"And those'd be?..." Onua asked him, as the bugs rammed at the door behind us.

"Ancient creatures," he replied. "They aren't exactly common, but at one point in the past, they seemed to be. The only things I know are the description, and the name... they were called, 'Iptasaer'."

Tarix was looking down, but his head flew up immediately when Tarduk said that word. "The iptasaer! Of course! Why didn't I think of that sooner!"

"You know what they are?" Pohatu asked.

"Yes, I do... though, like Tarduk, I've mainly learned about them through reading, stories, all of those things..."

"Well, spit it out!" I said. "We need to be informed, and those things will get through the door eventually!"

"Very well... the iptasaer are a strange species. One reason that is so is that they have two means of feeding; they are filter-feeders, and cleanse water of nutrients that, 'pollute' it, for lack of a better term. The second means... well, you should be able to guess," he said, gesturing to the door.

"The lake!" Takanuva said. "That's why it was so pure! They must have done exactly that!"

"I'm starting to see how this all works..." I said. "But, if they can filter-feed, why do they need, 'the second means'."

"Well, they never go to far from the entrance of their lair, for one thing. And they only build one of those for each one. Plus, there's only so much water out there. While the swamp may go all through the jungle, they'll only go so far from the cave's entrance. The trees around the lake would seem to be their set boundary."

"But why make the caves at all? Why can't they live in the trees, or under them?" Onua asked.

"We could ask the same of you, brother," Pohatu said to him.

Suddenly, Tarduk stopped the conversation. "Hey... I think they're gone!"

I walked over to the door, and listened closely for any noise on the other side. When I didn't hear anything, I told everyone to open the door. They did so, and we looked outside for the iptasaer.

"Tarduk's right; they've gone," Tarix said, stepping out into the chamber.

"So they've given up due to the inability to go through a door?" Pohatu said. "Why'd they even... put it here, then?..."

Something was wrong; Pohatu had just pointed it out to all of us. Those insects wouldn't place an obstacle in their domain that they couldn't pass. Would they?

The iptasaer came flowing back into the room like a dark wave, from all three of the other passages, and blocked our paths to all three.

Suddenly, a burst of wind came rushing into the chamber, blowing the iptasaer out of the way, and opening a path for us. We ran through, into the unblocked passage and away from the iptasaer. They remained behind for whatever reason, none giving chase.

We weren't surprised when we came upon the source of the wind that had saved us; Vastus and Lewa.

"It's good to see you again, brother!" Pohatu said to him, Onua following suit.

"You as well, Pohatu, Onua! I can see that you have had a run-in of your own with the iptasaer..." he replied.

"How do you know of them?" I asked him.

"How do you think, brother firespitter?" He gestured to Vastus. "You're all here, but where are the others? Gali, Kopaka, and Crotesius?"

"They stayed at the entrance, to keep watch for anyone trying to come out... or in."

Tarduk turned around, and yelled when he saw that the bugs were once more on the move.

"Do you know where the exit is?!" Vastus said.

"We were hoping you would..." Takanuva said.

"Well... we're just gonna have to make one ourselves!" Onua said. He ran for a wall, and started trying to dig, using his Pakari for added strength. But, he turned away, not even leaving a scratch. "Or... not..."

He threw a wall of earth up between us and the bugs. Then another, and another, and more and more until it was so reinforced it would let us get away and find a new path, far from the iptasaer. We ran down the path again, but Lewa stopped us after about a minute of running.

"Brothers! Wait! This part... Vastus and I pass-travelled through here!"

Vastus looked around, then found us Lewa's Toa symbol on the wall. "He's right! Now I remember... when we came down here... we passed by here! Going the way we just came!"

"Perfect!" Tarix said. "We can follow the symbols back to the entrance!"

"I knew we kept Lewa around for some reason," I said.

We started back down the passage, headed the direction that they'd come from earlier. Hopefully soon, we'd be out of that accursed cave.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_Also, two things: 1, excuse me if I didn't explain the 'iptasaer' well enough. It was kinda hard for me to put on paper... or, flashdrive... or whatever! 2, if you didn't notice, iptasaer is actually an anagram of parasite, because when I made up the iptasaer (which I did. They're mine. MINE. Not Lego's, mine... just the iptasaer, I mean...) the word that kept coming to mind when I'd try imagining a description for them was parasite. Idunno why, but it just was that word. So, I used that and got... them..._


	11. Chapter 10

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 10

We rushed through the maze, the iptasaer far behind, but catching up. As we'd decided, we were following the Nuva symbols Lewa'd left as a path. We began passing through crossroads we remembered; we were getting close.

We were about to start down a new path when we heard something strange. The pattering of the iptasaer's small legs seemed to... double.

"Oh, no..." Vastus said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's the others... the other swarm of iptasaer!"

"There are more of those things?!" Pohatu cried.

Vastus nodded. We started running again, headed once more down the path marked by the Nuva symbols. Behind us were the two swarms of iptasaer. I'd kind of hoped that, as two seperate swarms, they' want to fight one another,as if they were enemies. Unfortunately, they were both set on capturing us.

They began to fuse together, amazingly, both of the swarms. There were twice as many iptasaer this time, so tunfortunately for us, they merged into one of the giant insects we'd seen before... twice the normal size. And even with its new, giant form, it was still able to give chase, and fit into the passage ways.

We finally saw the tunnel from which we'd entered, just a little bit ahead of us.

"There! Straight ahead!" I yelled to everyone. "Onua, Pohatu, we're so close! Buy us some more time!"

They turned around and brought up another huge wall of earth and stone. They turned back to us and ran away from the wall. just in time, too. It was no help, as the iptasaer burst through it like it were paper.

We reached the exit, and ran up the slope leading to the light outside. The iptasaer followed, not worried about leaving the place where it was strongest. It shot forward, getting a hold on Takanuva. It pulled him backward, back into the dark.

"Ah! H-help!" he said as he tried firing bolts of light at the beast. We rushed back, trying to pull him from its grasp. But, it over-powered us, and pulled him once more. They disappeared quickly into the darkness, as we tried running, flying... whatever means we could to catch up. But it still managed to get away, taking a turn in a direction we didn't even know.

Onua looked down at the ground, trying to find the iptasaer's tracks. "It looks like they split apart again," he said after a moment or so. "Back into two swarms... but, I'm not sure why they'd do that without... er, splitting the catch, or fighting over him."

"Another thing is that they wouldn't have had enough time to, either. At least not without us getting a glimpse of them," I said.

"Well, its also a possibility that these tracks are older. I mean look at the dust on the ground. If you looked close enough, there could be millions of them going back and forth."

"But we would still see those ones; they'd be huge compared to the rest!"

"We've seen lots of strange things before, Tahu..." Pohatu said. "Those bugs are definitely up there. But even Tarix and Vastus here know only so much. There could be more, unknown abilities the iptasaer have that no one around now know about."

"Pohatu is correct-right," Lewa said. "Think about the Makuta. When we encountered-met on Mata Nui, we were confronted with but a Matoran-villager. Then he... you know... got weird..."

"Yes, and we later discovered many more enemies with unknown powers. These bugs could for all we know have teleported, or found some kind of... hidden passage..." Onua said. He walked back to the tunnel leading up, and looked for the iptasaer tracks again.

"What are you doing?" Tarduk asked him.

"These bugs are smart; really smart... they've got these complex passages, stairways, doors.. and maybe even HIDDEN doors..." He went back to tracking the iptasaer. Finally, he stopped. "Look. These huge tracks end right here at the 'entrance,' but even though it looks like they split apart, they may've just taken a hidden path."

He activated his powers over earth, shifting and changing the ground below our feet. We were surprised to see when he was done, there was a second tunnel going even deeper down in the entrance to the passageway ahead of us.

"This place never ceases to amaze me..." Pohatu said. "One surprise after another... and I was thinking we weren't gonna have any excitement on this trip up north."

"This isn't really a time for jokes, Pohatu," I said. "Takanuva's got to be somewhere down there, and we have to hurry and get him back." I took a step forward toward the tunnel, when a few iptasaer crawled out.

"Oh, its not that many," Tarduk said, taking a step forward himself. Even more crawled forth from the tunnel.

"That cannot be a good sign..." Lewa said. He was right. Many more iptasaer crawled out, nearly as big as the two swarms we'd seen before.

"I'm beginning to think that this cave isn't inhabited by two... or even three swarms of these thing..." Vastus said. "But rather, there is one great one, filled with," he gulped. "Thousands..."

"That would explain much," I said, stepping back. "And I'm starting to think he's right..."

More and more came flowing out of the tunnel, and they started merging like the others we'd encountered.

"Retreat!" I yelled. "Head for the entrance!"

We turned around, once again running from the iptasaer. Only this time, we seemed to be getting farther from them and closer to the jungle outside.

"What about Takanuva?!" yelled Pohatu behind me. "We can't leave down there, can we?"

"We're... we're going to probably have to, Pohatu..." I said bitterly. "As much as I'll regret it, we have a job to do... for the Matoran, the Agori; everyone back in the united city."

Pohatu hung his head... at least, as best he could while we were running for our lives. We burst through the entrance, nearly falling off the island and into the lake, but we managed to keep are balance and stay up.

"Now get to the chariots!" I yelled.

"Tahu, what's going on?" Gali said.

"The creatures down there... they're coming! We have to get away!" The others were already running to the vehicles, passing a confused Crotesius who looked to be keeping an eye on them all.

"Where is Takanuva?" Kopaka said. I was surprised he was the one who first noticed of the two, and even more so that he actually cared to ask.

"He... was lost... to the creatures down there..." I replied solemnly.

"What creatures?" Gali asked.

"We'll explain once we're moving!" I said to her, in a rush now, as I saw a single iptasaer crawling out, with other following behind. They must have defused, but why?

I got my answer soon. They swarmed around the island, covering the rock that formed the cave's mouth. They'd get to the 'bridge' leading to the chariots soon.

"C'mon!" I said, beginning to run for the 'bridge.' We crossed it in a rush, and found the others were already slowly moving, getting ready for a burst of speed for our escape.

We all jumped on, and the chariots sped off almost immediately. We were heading through the trees opposite the side of the lake we'd originally come to, when we first entered this jungle. They seemed to be farther spread, making for a much easier trip through them.

We kept going, for hours, until we came to the edge of the jungle, and when we were sure the iptasaer had stopped following. We explained everything that had happened down there, and what the iptasaer were. Lewa and Vastus told their story as well. But, we saved the loss of Takanuva for last.

"They dragged him down that passage," Onua said. "We would've followed, and retaken him, but the iptasaer... they started flooding out... there were just too many."

"We had to leave him," Pohatu continued. "Unless those iptasaer were ones we'd encountered before, which I doubt, there were at least three swarms of them, all part of one bigger one."

"If we'd followed, we would've been caught just as easily," I said. That path was probably hidden because it probably leads to their nest."

"How could you not handle a few simple bugs?" Kopaka said. "We've fought Rahi, Bohrok, Rahkshi, and tons of other threats the universe have thrown at us... and you run away in fear of a few insignificant bugs?"

I glared at him. "Kopaka, those were different... with them, there weren't hundreds, or millions at a time. With them, they didn't seem immune to every, single attack that we could use. With them, we weren't on completely unknown territory!"

"He does make a point..." Gali said. "We've battled many foes, and prevailed each time eventually."

"But those times, that was the entire goal," I said. "Our goal here is to find how far north we can go, and find places where the Matoran and Agori can travel to and live."

"We tried dealing with those insects, Kopaka, Gali..." Pohatu said. "But we failed. We only had so much time down there, and we'd spent enough in those caves. From what you said, we were down there for two days... we couldn't have used more time to delve deeper, and perhaps get lost."

"Yes," Tarix replied. "The iptasaer could've easily sealed us down there, unable to escape... and then the mission in its entirety would be a failure. You'd have to continue without us, and most likely meet the Skrall again, or some other threat. And with two Toa and one Agori... you'd hardly stand a chance."

"Let's just get off this subject..." Onua said. "Takanuva... he defeated the Makuta in battle and won... He used to travel the jungles, the mountains, the desert, all of those places, on Mata Nui... alone, as a Matoran... he should be able to take care of himself down there."

"We can only hope," Vastus said, climbing into the chariot. "We should get moving. We wasted more time in this accursed jungle as we should've..."

"Yes... let's leave this place... it may be a jungle, but I don't want to linger here any longer..." Lewa said.

We all climbed aboard the vehicles, and started north once more. Somewhere underneath our feet, Takanuva was hopefully wandering the labyrinth of those monsters. We could only hope that somewhere along our way, whether on our way back, or ahead of us, we'd get a chance to go back down there and find him...

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	12. Chapter 11

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 11

He made a turn, and then another. Takanuva was running as fast as he could. Ahead of him was pitch black, and behind him, an angry swarm of iptasaer. Earlier, they'd dragged him into a secret path near the entrance of the maze above and away from his friends.

He barely gotten away from them; he was lucky they'd merged together for greater strength. He'd taken the chance to strike them with his staff; it hadn't done too much damage, but it was enough to allow him to get free. He was barely able to get loose, but managed it and bolted off. Although they probably dragged him far from the second entrance, it was far enough for him to get lost... again. The only differences from before was that he was deeper below, and worse, he was alone this time.

He turned his thoughts away, and back to running from the monsters behind him. He ran forward through the dark, vanishing into the shadows. Just moments later, behind him, a wave of hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of insects, rolled forward...

Tahu's P.O.V.

We were far from the jungle where we'd lost Takanuva. It pained all of us to have left him behind, but we were on an important mission; we'd known sacrifices would be necessary. Even sacrifices like this...

We were now passing through a lush, green land. Around us were all sorts of creatures, mainly from Bara Magna, but we saw a few Rahi that'd made there way out of our former 'universe,' and then, eventually, come here.

"This place is... amazing..." Lewa said.

"To be simply put," Pohatu replied. "Yes, it is."

"This would be a great place for some villages," I said.

"That's along the lines of what we said about that accursed jungle," Vastus pointed out. "And we know how that went... imagine what could've happened to Matoran and Agori who'd settled in the area had we left it unexplored?"

"Vastus is right," Tarix agreed. "We should find out what we can about this land before we make any more assumptions."

I nodded. "I agree completely. We'll set out tomorrow; the sun is setting, so we wouldn't be able to do much tonight."

We took the vehicles under an overhang like the one we'd stopped at after the first Skrall attack, far from where we were now. We settled in for the night, anxious to see the new land in the morning.

Early tomorrow morning, we were making our plans.

"We'll split up. Gali, Kopaka, Vastus, and Crotesius, come with me. We'll see the eastern regions of this place. The rest of you will be led by Pohatu in the west."

They nodded and walked to their positions with me and Pohatu.

"We'll leave the vehicles here," I said. "we can't divide them up evenly between us with only three chariots, and Crotesius's Cendox is too small for anyone other than an Agori."

"Do I... uh, have to leave it?" Crotesius asked.

"...Yes, Crotesius," I groaned.

"O-or I could.. er... stay and watch 'em! Yeah... we wouldn't... we wouldn't want the Skrall to show up and steal them again, would we?"

"And how would a single Agori fend off that whole group of Skrall?"

"I... I wouldn't be alone! Tarduk! Tarduk could stay here, too!"

Tarduk snapped his head to face him. "Hey, wait a minute! I wanna see this place! Not get stuck watchin' the vehicles! Besides, two Agori wouldn't make much difference if the Skrall showed up anyways!"

"Enough!" Kopaka yelled. "If Crotesius is concerned about 'all' the vehicles, then he can watch them... and fight the Skrall ALONE if they show up..."

Crotesius froze; Kopaka'd gotten to him. "Fine..." he said. Kopaka smirked, and turned back to us.

"Alright," I said. "How about we stop wasting time and get moving. Crotesius did, however, make a point... we should leave someone to watch the chariots. So Crotesius, Tarduk, Vastus, and Onua, you can stay here and keep an eye on them."

Tarduk walked gloomily to the ring of vehicles. The others I'd named did too, but not in the same fashion. Crotesius ran over to the Cendox as fast as he could, jumped up, and sat in it. The other two walked into the center of the ring and sat down facing opposite directions, watching for the Skrall.

"Don't fret-worry, Tarduk," Lewa said. "You'll have other chances; besides, I'm sure the memories of our journey in the iptasaer's den are still fresh in your mind!"

Tarduk shivered, remembering what happened down there.

"Ok," I said to Gali and Kopaka. "Let's go!" Pohatu did the same for the others with him. We were on the move, heading off to explore even more new land.

After hours of wandering, we'd found a good few waterways, a lot of green land, and a few small forests. The new land truly was something else; if we met no problems, it would be a great place to begin building.

"Tahu, Kopaka," Gali said. "Take a look at this." She motioned for us to come over to where she was standing, on a hill overlooking a valley. We walked over, and looked down. What we saw was amazing.

We saw a huge lake, much like the one in the jungle... but this one fit; this was didn't have an ominous sense of something being wrong with it. It looked like it belonged. It stretched from one end of the valley to the other, which was a pretty big distance. If I had to guess, I'd say it was probably as long as Ta-Metru had been.

As for the width, it was no where near as big as the length, but it was still a pretty good size. You could probably build a bridge of sorts over it, though.

"It's..." I started.

"Big," Kopaka said. "Really, really big."

"Well, yes, but-" I began to reply, but Gali cut me off.

"Tahu! Look!"

I turned toward where she was pointing, and what did I see?

Actually, something I didn't expect to see. I saw in the distance far at the southern edge of the lake a tower. The tower though, looked like it was a makeshift build, not something that had much effort put into it. Around it were figures, but they were to far from us to really see.

"Should we go investigate?" Kopaka asked.

"No..." I said. "We'll regroup with the others, and tell them about this. Then, we'll all return together to see. In the meantime, we'll continue up toward the northern edge of the lake."

I turned to the north, starting to walk. Kopaka and Gali followed. We walked down a slope that led right down into the valley, to the lake's edge, and walked right alongside it to see what sort of wildlife might be in it.

"There's got to be a river up on the north edge," Gali said. "Otherwise those fish we saw wouldn't have been able to get here, and there'd probably be near no water, if any, in this valley."

"There's likely one at the south end, too," I said. "That tower may've been in our sight, but it was still hard to see. There could've been a river we couldn't see there, as well."

"Actually..." Kopaka interrupted. "There are two." He pointed to the north, and we turned to see. The northern edge of the lake had come into view, but our conversation had distracted us from it. We now saw the edge, which did indeed have two rivers flowing into it.

"If a village were built here, the rivers would make great protection on the sides," I said.

"Yes..." Gali said. "We'll have to make note of this place."

"Let's go and take a look around," I said. We ran over to the river, and Kopaka made an ice bridge for us to cross into the area at in between the rivers.

We started walking around the area, to see what we could find. We headed to the southern part first, where there were hills covering a good bit of the area. It was there we found another thing we didn't expect.

"This... this far from the other one?" I said.

"Those things... with this here, there could be even more area they've covered..." Gali said.

"They must've been pretty busy over all this time for their home to reach all the way from the jungle to way up here," Kopaka said.

Before us, in the side of the hill, was a tunnel. And far in the distance, it was just barely possible to hear the feet of thousands of insects.

We'd found another entrance to the labyrinth of the iptasaer.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	13. Chapter 12

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 12

After a day of exploring, we returned to the 'camp' and met up with the others. We told them about our finds; the tower, the valley... and lastly, the cave.

"Well, we have to go back down there!" Pohatu said. "We left Takanuva down there before, that tunnel could take us to him again!"

"He's right," Kopaka said. "If we pass this oppurtunity up, we may not get another chance to try finding Takanuva."

"I can assure you," I said. "We will be going back down into the tunnels. We explored much of the labyrinth before, that cave probably goes into the lower levels we found. Plus, if there is a chance to go find Takanuva... we're taking it."

"But this brings back the question," Lewa said. "Why couldn't we have search-looked for him while we were still in the jungle tunnels? We could've easily gone down into them later on, after the monster-bugs had left the doorway to the lower levels."

"Yes..." I started. "But we'd spent enough time in those caves. We had a mission to do, and still do. But, if this cave is, by some chance, a completely different one, not related at all to the iptasaer's cave, then we have an excuse to go down there again."

"Tahu's right," Onua said. "While we could've tried finding him down there last time, we had to move on; we couldn't spend more time in just that single area. Besides, that tunnel... was hidden. It was probably hidden for a reason. And those iptasaer were right by the entrance, probably guarding the lower levels. That path wouldn't have probably worked."

Pohatu nodded. "This one could go down to the same caves for all we know, and since its not hidden, its probably not guarded by those bugs."

"And what if this new journey for all of you down there is a waste of time itself?" Crotesius said. "What if Takanuva is already-" Before he finished, Tarduk smacked him in the back of the head.

"We all have that thought in mind," he said. "But were trying not to be downers; we're moving forward on the mindset that he's still kickin' down there."

Crotesius shrugged, and walked back to his Cendox, leaving all of us to make the decision.

"I think I know how we're all going to answer the question at hand," I said. "So, we have only to decide who's going to head down there."

"Crotesius is definitely out," Tarduk said, looking over his shoulder at the Fire Agori. "And as much as I'd enjoy another adventure... I'd really prefer to sit this one out. After the last trip down there..."

"We're not going to force-make you to go back down there, Tarduk," Lewa said to him. "All of us who have been down there have reasons to stay behind."

After more conversation about the subject, we decided in the end that the Agori and Glatorian would remain behind, and that us Nuva, the ones who had more reason to try and help Takanuva, would go.

"We'll be heading out tomorrow morning, so all of you get a good rest tonight," I said as we walked back to the camp for the night.

A little before noon the next day, the six of us were standing at the entrance of the cave. The camp had been moved to a place just a short walk away, much closer to the cave than it was before. We stepped in, starting to walk down the tunnel into the darkness. After a good bit of time walking, much like before, we came to a crossroads.

"This... cannot be right!" Pohatu yelled. "This looks just like the entrance in the jungle!"

"Onua, check the floor," I said, ignoring Pohatu. "See if you can find another secret passageway."

He did so, running his hands along the ground. He stopped, and activated his mask. He pulled up a stone slab and revealed another tunnel going farther down. Again, exactly like the jungle entrance.

"The bugs must like symmetry," Lewa shrugged.

"Gali, if there are any iptasaer in there, they need to be flushed out from the passage," I told her.

She nodded to me, and stepped up the the tunnel. Using whatever energy she could, she created a large sphere of water, and then allowed it to splash down into the tunnel. We could all swear we heard a thousand little screams echo in the distance.

"Alright, let's hurry down!" I said, running into the shadows. They followed quickly behind me.

This tunnel going down was a lot shorter, but, a lot steeper. If we had to make a swift escape, chances are we'd have some pretty bad luck at this point. We continued forward on a long, flat path through the tunnel for a very good while, and eventually came to a large, single-room, cavern.

"Mata Nui, this place is huge!" Onua said.

That didn't describe it. The cavern was more than huge; it looked the inside of a huge mountain, when really, it would be far below one, if anything. Looking around the room, there were multiple tunnels going in all directions around the circular edges of the chamber. They most likely all led to other secret passages to the upper-floors, or worse, into yet another maze.

I saw movement on the edge of my vision. I turned my head to one of the tunnels to our left and out of it came a huge swarm of iptasaer... But there was a silver-lining to it, even if those monsters were in the same room as us. Ahead of them, was Takanuva.

I turned everyone else's attention to him, and the bugs. Onua created a wall of earth between him and the swarm, and confused at what had happened, Takanuva turned and saw us.

He ran toward us, just as the iptasaer swarm broke through the wall. They rushed after him, and subsequently, us. Lewa unleashed a blast of air at them, blowing them backwards into the cave wall. Takanuva reached us just after they hit.

"How did you... how did you guys get down here?!" he asked us. "After they caught me, I thought they sealed the entrance?"

"They what?!" Pohatu yelled.

"Yeah. After they carried me down the tunnel to the lower caves, another swarm went back up to seal the jungle entrance."

"Why would they do that? That means they lost all access to the lake there," I said. "Plus, then the wild creatures in the jungle can't get down into the tunnels for them to hunt."

"I think they realized that if you got away, then I might've, too," he replied. "So they didn't want that happening. They probably planned on digging it out anyways, after..."

Gali silenced him. "There's no point talking that way, anymore. We've come down here to get you out. The cave behind us leads back to the surface, and the others are waiting there for us."

"Then let's go; I've been wandering these tunnels for days, and I want out," he said. He stepped toward the cave, when the sound of tons of little insects reached us. "Oh, no..."

Out of the cave came the iptasaer that we thought Gali'd washed out of the tunnel.

"Gali, how did they survive!?" I said, stepping back.

"There must've been some smaller tunnels... that led to slightly higher ground behind the walls; they probably hid in there from the flood," she said.

They marched out of the cavern, and behind us the ones Lewa'd thrown into the wall were starting to head over. Out of the tunnels all around us more and more swarmed out, gathering all around us.

"I think... we're probably going to die, down here..." Lewa said in an unusually, not-really-him kind of tone.

"You're probably right, Lewa," I said. "You're probably right..."

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_Also, I feel I need to apologize for this; I wanted to get this chapter up fast since I've had so many gaps in between the newest ones. So, since I write them one at a time, and got this one up so fast, nothing big ('cept for my lazily added finding of Takanuva, and even that's not really much) really happens in this chapter. But I've got something big planned for 13, so hopefully that one will NOT disappoint._


	14. Chapter 13

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 13

Above us now stood a massive iptasaer. After all the iptasaer had swarmed out, from wherever they'd come from, they merged into a giant one, larger than any of their other forms we'd previously seen. They became a single one, and we could now see every intricate detail its shell had; the rifts in between parts like plates, a pair of enormous pincers... we even saw every, single, beaty, little eye.

The bug(if I could even still call it that) launched the first attack. It slammed its pincers into the ground, creating a tremor that the Glatorian up above ground probably all felt. I jumped on top of one, running along it to its face. As I went, I pulled out my rotater blade. It had yet to be repaired of the damage of thousands of tiny bite-marks left by these bugs. Now, the ripped blades were going to puncture a thousand little eyes.

It swung its head, trying to throw me off. I activated the jets on my body, throwing my self forward through the air. I landed on its face; right where I wanted to be. I raised my blade, and brought it down into one of its eyes. The monster screeched, and swung in pain. Again, I used my jets to avoid being thrown off. I did the same as many times as I could, before it finally managed to toss me to the ground by releasing a swarm of the iptasaer that formed its body. They forced me off, and I landed back on the ground with my teammates.

"Hopefully that..." I said. "Will slow it down a good bit."

"We can only hope so," Pohatu said. He motioned for Onua to follow him, and he ran to the center of the room. He told the rest of us to take to the sky, and distract the thing.

We all took flight, hoping Pohatu knew what he was doing. We opened fire on the bug, launching our blasts at its face, its weak point as far as we knew. We kept its full attention on us, and away from the other two.

Onua and Pohatu ran to the area directly below the monster, or actually right below its two flanks. They focused on the ground, and together, raised a gigantic pillar of stone and earth. We'd distracted the iptasaer so that it wouldn't stop them.

They tossed it up, and slammed it against the ceiling. It screeched again, and broke apart into many smaller, but still larger than normal, iptasaer. Once they'd gotten out of the trap, they refused again, back into the massive one. It slammed its two front legs into the ground, making the cavern shake again, and opening to crevices headed for Pohatu and Onua.

As they started falling into the holes in the ground, they took flight and joined us in the air. The iptasaer swung its pincers at us, swiping Takanuva and Lewa with it and throwing them into the wall. It charged at us, its remaining eyes focused on me. It probably wasn't happy that it couldn't see me with the rest. The others flew out of the way, and I flew onto its back. I landed between two of the plates on it. There was a small gap in between them. These plates were its armor; if I could get through them...

"Onua!" I called to him, as the beast tried to shake me off again. He flew over to me, and stood on the creature's back.

"What? Did you find something?"

I simply pointed to the gap when he asked, and he got the idea. It was then that I got the feeling that we were getting lower... closer to the cave floor. I looked down over the edge and saw many of the iptasaer seperating from the massive one and climbing up the walls. Some where headed for the forms of Lewa and Takanuva, still embedded like lightstones in the old Onu-Wahi mines in the walls surface. The rest were headed for the areas right next to all of the other flying Nuva.

Onua shook my shoulder, and pointed out the now, much larger gap between plates he'd made with some help from his Pakari.

"Good, thanks..." I said. "Now, go help the others. Get those bugs back on the ground and back into this thing. If it defuses and I'm inside... well, you can imagine the "pretty" picture...

"Right..." he said nervously. He flew back out to the area around the bug, and started pushing back some of the iptasaer on the walls. He got Lewa and Takanuva back into reality, and they quickly jumped back into the fight. I crawled down in between the plates, and wasn't exactly surprised by what I found.

The insects weren't natural. I'd guessed it forever ago, when they chewed up my rotator blade. The Glatorian, Agori, everyone on Bara Magna must have gotten their facts wrong, because when I dropped into the iptasaer, I saw the sides, lined with machinery. I looked around. Tarix and Vastus had said before that the iptasaer were filter feeders. That was why we could tell the water in the jungle lake was so clean. But if they were machines, how would that have worked? And how would they be able to merge as they did?

I spotted what I wanted to see. A large tank, in the very center of the 'room.' I looked it over, checked what I could about it, and found it to be the iptasaer stomach, of sorts. The tanks like this were what took the water's chemicals that they used, what converted it to power for the bugs. But that still left my question on how they could merge.

I got the answer then. The flanks of the iptasaer began to shrink, closing in on me. The tank also shrank, but looking closely at it, i saw it was filled with tons of other, smaller ones. Probably those of each individual iptasaer. I ran to the center of the 'room,' and crouched against what was left of the tank. The shrinking side stopped, and stayed at their new places. I slowly stood up, ready to get out of their way should they start again, but they didn't.

I made my way to what I remember mentally marking as the pathway into the iptasaer's head, and started down.

Omniscient P.O.V.

Takanuva did a somersault in the air, barely avoiding the claw of the iptasaer. Meanwhile, a bunch of smaller ones were jumping off the wall at the Toa, then falling to the ground, and climbing again.

Every bug that flew at Pohatu, ended up being cut in half. He caught them between his blades, then clamped them together on them. The two halves fell to the ground, and if they were close enough to the giant in the middle of the room, merged back into it.

Kopaka froze large clusters of the iptasaer to the walls, trapping them... until the others cracked the ice and broke them out. The majority of the bugs was going at Kopaka for just that reason; they wanted him to stop freezing the swarm.

Gali's elemental abilities weren't of much use here. Every time she threw water at the iptasaer, they gathered together right in the wave, then once it was a puddle on the ground, drank it all. She eventually stopped, each ineffective blast having weakened her.

Lewa was flying around the room in circles. Every insect that threw itself at him got blown back into the wall, or to the floor. Then he was gone before they could take another shot, already on the other side of the cavern.

Finally, Onua, was bringing down chunks of the ceiling on them, many of the rocks barely missing the giant iptasaer in the center. He had told everyone to try to keep from firing at it, with Tahu inside. So, to try to get them to do something, it released a swarm of smaller iptasaer to do exactly what they were doing now.

An iptasaer jumped out and landed on Onua's mask. Two more followed, and threw him off balance. He flew into the side of the giant bug's head., making it stumble into the wall. The cavern shook, and some of the rocks Onua loosened fell down on it.

They left few marks, but they still angered the iptasaer. It lunged at Onua, catching him in its pincers. It raised its head, and dropped him into it's razor-filled mouth. A group of iptasaer jumped in as well, to keep him from flying out. The other Toa Nuva, occupied with the iptasaer jumping at them, didn't see it until Onua was passing the first row of blades.

Tahu's P.O.V.

I was still in the monster's 'neck.' The calamity in the torso had made me lose my place, leaving me to walk the wrong way. When I realized I was on my way to the wrong end, I turned around and starting following the confusing series of tubes to the head.

I was reached the mouth. I was getting nearer to the brain, my target. I started forth again, when I saw something starting to fall into the tunnel of razors that made up the mouth.

Onua.

I reacted quickly, throwing my rotator blade into the 'throat.' As I'd hoped, it got lodged in between both rows, stopping them completely. Onua fell safely between them, landing on top of the tube to the tank in one piece rather that in it as a hundred.

"Lucky you were there just now," Onua said.

"I guess... but that's unluckily, the end of that weapon," I sighed, as I watched my rotator blade get shredded by the razors.

"Relax, brother," Onua said. "I'm sure that when we return to the United Village, we can replace it. But... how did you know that it wouldn't get shredded right away?"

"I didn't know it would. I HOPED it would," I shrugged. "I gambled on that one. Now, its my turn to ask a question. How did THAT happen, anyways?" I gestured to the spinning blades.

"It... er, took me by surprise?" Onua replied.

"Right..." I said. "Fair enough... Well, now that you're here, you may as well help me handle this thing."

"I guess so," Onua said. "How close do you think we are to the brain?"

"If this thing's anatomy is what I'd expect, it should be just above us."

We turned our heads to look up. We saw what we'd hoped for; the iptasaer's brain. Linked to a ton of cables that connected to the eyes, muscles, and every machine inside the iptasaer, this was it's master control.

It was about to become a broken, master control.

I shot up through the air, pulling together a ball of fire. Onua shot up behind me, readying his blaster. We took opposite sides of the brain, then opened fire.

Omniscient P.O.V.

The giant iptasaer twisted, and turned, and flung itself from wall to wall. Whatever was going on, the five Toa Nuva in the cave weren't doing it.

Everything in the cave, both the Toa and the iptasaer, stopped whatever they were doing, and watched the spectacle. The giant iptasaer swung its head, slamming into the walls, the floor, whatever, and brought down layer upon layer of rock on top of it.

Slowly, in an attempt to relieve the pain it was suffering, it began to defuse. Small iptasaer split off from it, as it shrank.

Part of it's head, however, still grew. A few of the eyes burst, and out of the holes into it's head left by it flew Tahu and Onua.

Tahu's P.O.V.

The two of us flew out of the iptasaer's head. When it had started shrinking, we knew we had to get out of there. We blasted our way out past the eyes. That had to have been quite the entrance back into the real fight for the others.

We flew up to the other Nuva, and looked down on the iptasaer as it fell apart. That had been the strongest thing this swarm had been able to throw at us. Hopefully, us bringing it down would have had an impact.

The iptasaer that defused moved quickly, but not away. The second they split off from the larger one, they swung their heads in the same way we'd felt the giant did. We'd barely been able to keep our balance inside with its head going back and forth, even though we were flying.

They soon afterward fell to the ground, never to move again.

By the time the mass seizure we'd caused was over, a fraction of the swarm was left. Only the ones that had been defused earlier were still alive, and while that was still a good few, it was nothing compared to the swarm we'd faced in our first trek down here. A couple hundred, maybe three, was all there was now.

The iptasaer stood still, frozen in their places, looking at their dead comrades. Slowly, one of them began to move. Thankfully, not toward us, but toward one of the multiple caverns leading out of the room. Soon, all of them followed suit. One group, however, was headed for the tunnel we entered through. The only means of escape we knew right now.

We all got the message, even though no one said anything. We shot forward toward the tunnel, and flew up as fast as we could. Just as we passed through the arch that made the entrance in that cavern, a wave of earth fell over it. The iptasaer were, as we'd predicted, blocking it off, just as they'd done in the jungle.

When we were so far away, we dropped to the ground of the tunnel, and started to walk toward the surface.

I started thinking, on our way up, that if this tunnel lead down into the iptasaer domain, could there be more? We were already sure they had at least two, but what if there were others? Matoran and Agori might end up setting up their villages near them, and then what? Have some curious one go down and not come back out?

If there were others like this, then we, the Toa and Glatorian and anyone else who could do something about them would have to go block off all the tunnels, or better, go down and wipe out the remaining iptasaer.

When we reached the surface, Takanuva rushed out. After all that time of rocks, bugs, and dark, he would obivously be happy to see that which made his own element again.

We headed for where the camp was. For where Tarduk, Crotesius, Vastus, and Tarix were. What we found is that it really was where they were. Where they'd been, because they were gone.

All that we found was a paper, stuck to the ground and held down by a some sort of dagger. Kopaka walked over and picked it up, then read it aloud for all of us:

"_To the companions of the three trespassers..._"

"_The small, red Agori told us when we found them trespassing on our territory, that there were more of you. More of you coming to our land. We've taken these three back to our tower. Now when you read this message, you'll get OUR message. You can turn yourselves into us, or we can hunt you down. If we know your type, then let the hunt begin._"

"_From, the Sisters of the Skrall._"

"SISTERS of the Skrall?" I said in disbelief. "I thought we were done with any Skrall that might cause us problems... Now you're telling me there's a whole 'nother group of them?"

"It would seem that way," Kopaka replied.

"Wait, the note says three..." Gali cut in. "Four of them were here. Why is the last of them not accounted for?"

"Because," a voice came from behind the small hill next to us. "They didn't manage to get all of us." Tarduk stepped up from behind it, and walked out to us.

"Tarduk, why didn't they manage to capture you?" Onua asked him.

"I was out exploring when they came, when they found them. I wanted to see this place, and the whole reason we're all up here is to do that; explore. I was just about to reenter the camp when they were leaving."

"So Crotesius apparently didn't say there was another person above ground with them, too," I said.

"From what I overheard, he told them that you had gone down into the tunnels. They figured that if I was gone, I'd followed you."

"But why didn't THEY follow us, then, if he told them where we'd gone?" I asked.

"You've got me there," Tarduk shrugged.

"Well, we've figured out the inhabitants of that tower, then," Kopaka said. "And how lucky are we that we have a reason to go to it now, too?"

"It's no time for sarcasm, Kopaka," I said. "Did he tell them how many of us there were? And for another thing, why'd he tell them about us at all?" I asked Tarduk.

"Again, I was gone. I don't know the answers to some of these questions."

"Alright," I sighed. "Everyone, I hope your feet don't hurt from the climb back up here, because its time to go for another walk."

I turned and saw the tower in the distance. We'd just battled it out with an army of monster insects. Couldn't we get a break for an hour? When everyone said they were ready, we started moving. It was time for our third consecutive rescue mission since we'd started up here. So far, the odds were in our favor.

We could only hope that they'd stay that way.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	15. Chapter 14

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 14

The tower was beginning to come into view, and we could now see the figures walking around the tower's base. We stopped behind one of the many hills, and got ready to move in. I grabbed the dagger that the Skrall had left with the note at our camp. I'd need it since the iptasaer had shredded my rotator blade.

"Tarduk, you know more about what's on this planet than us; do you know anything about these, 'Sisters of Skrall?'" I asked him.

"Well if 'Skrall' is in their name, all I know is they can't be friendly," he replied.

"Yes, we all made that assumption," Kopaka said.

"Then I guess this is all gonna be a big shot in the dark," I sighed.

"Let's just hurry up and get this over with," Pohatu cut in. "That tower is giving me the willies, and the Skrall shadows around it aren't helping."

"We can't just rush in, brother," Gali said. "We haven't got any knowledge about this enemy; we don't know what we're up against."

"Gali's right, Pohatu," I said. "If we want to pull this off, we have to know what we're going to do."

We stayed there behind the hill for a while, planning how we were going to get those three back. Tarduk told us what little he could about what he'd seen earlier; the Skrall didn't seem to carry weapons and wore cloaks, or robes, of some kind. The only weapon he'd seen them with was the dagger they used to leave their message to us.

After a short while longer, the sun set and day turned to night. We started toward the tower, moving quickly but quietly on our feet. When we'd gotten close enough to see the individual Skrall that circled the Tower, we split up and surrounded it ourselves, everyone taking a different side. Tarduk stayed with me.

To get in, we had to get rid of the guards. In between Kopaka and I, the two of us who were on the edges of the incomplete ring we'd made around the tower, was a large gap. We planned for me to create a fire farther back from where we were, that would hopefully distract the guards and get some of them to leave their post.

I focused my power directly on the gap, some distance away. First I saw smoke, then a glow appeared. Finally, the smoke thickened a large flames started rising above the grasses in the area. I turned my attention back to the tower, looking at the guards. They'd stopped patrolling, and appeared to be talking to one another. After a moment or so, about half of them walked off toward the fire. That left another five behind, guarding the tower.

This was what we'd hoped for. Even though we thought that we might be able to fight all of the guards in a head-on attack, the keyword was 'might.' We didn't want to take any chances in this, so we decided to try splitting them up and evening out the odds.

I started forward, Tarduk following me. Hopefully the others would be moving in, too. But, I wouldn't know until I got the tower. We got to the edge of the area where the grass thinned out, and I took a look around the edges to see if any of the others were visible. I created a small spark, just for a moment, to try to signal to the others that I was in place. The guards, fortunately, didn't see it.

For another moment, I waited, and I saw signs that the others were in place as well. I saw a small puddle form, some rocks jut out of the ground, a wind blew around the perimeter of the clearing, a small pit formed, and the puddle I'd seen froze.

The last signal was also the start of our attack. A large flash of light appeared over the entrance, signaling Takanuva's presence and for us to move. The guards ran toward the door, confused at what the flash was, then I leapt out and created a ring of fire around them. They turned to look back at me, confused even more. Gali extinguished the flames almost immediately, turning them to steam. Then, Lewa blew all of the hot air out of the way.

Onua and Pohatu shaped a pitfall underneath the Sister of the Skrall, dropping them into it. Once they were at the bottom, Kopaka shaped several layers of ice over top of them, trapping them underneath. Tarduk was running toward the door, on his way to see if it was unlocked, while Pohatu and Onua covered up their trap to hide the guards from the others should they return.

Speaking of the other guards, that was right when they showed up. They ran into the clearing, and saw the eight of us. Tarduk had now opened the door, and ran in. He didn't yet realize that the other guards had arrived. The guards who'd come back all just stood still, focusing their gaze on us.

It was our turn to be confused now; we'd expect that, as guards, they'd have weapons. They didn't. They just... stood there. In a minute though, we got our answser as to why. They continued to stand there, not taking there gaze off us even a little. I started to raise the dagger, but suddenly my head started to feel... strange.

I felt dizzy, the scene I was looking at started to ripple, twist, turn, and all sorts of things. Everything started to fade, but I could feel myself falling to the ground. I took a quick look around the clearing, and saw the others all starting to fall, too. I hit the ground, with a thud, and everything around me just went black.

Omniscient P.O.V.

Tarduk ran inside, starting to turn around and call to the others that he'd gotten through the locks on the door. But, as he turned, he saw more Sister of the Skrall entering the clearing; the ones that Tahu'd sent off after the fire.

He quickly hid behind the door, hoping they hadn't and wouldn't see him. He started to peek around it again, and saw Toa Tahu start to raise his weapon when suddenly, his face went blank. He fell over, and all of the other Toa Nuva soon followed suit.

Tarduk started to crawl along the wall away from the door, slowly and in the shadows. He may not have seen any Sisters of the Skrall inside this tower so far, but there were bound to be some somewhere, and he didn't want to be found. He made his way to a spiraling staircase; he could go up, or down. He decided on going down, and started down the stairs.

He couldn't leave the tower without the others. This tower was filled with people who wanted either dead imprisoned. Things weren't looking good for ol' Tarduk.

_You came up here looking for adventure, Tarduk? _he thought to himself. _Well, I'm pretty sure I've found it..._

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_Well... here ya go... yeah... took a while, didn't it? My apologies for that. ^^_;


	16. Chapter 15

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 15

I awoke in a place I didn't expect to see again; the sandy spaces of Bara Magna. I looked around, but didn't see anything but the sand and the sky (or part of it anyways. There was a sandstorm raging around me to make things all the better).

_This isn't right... _I thought. _Where is all the greenery left by Mata Nui? Where's the populace?_

I started walking through the sandstorm to find anyone and/or anything I could. The winds blew me back and forth, and through sand into my eyes. I couldn't see anything, but I kept on walking forward. At least, I thought I was going forward.

I wandered for a while, but finally stopped, or rather, was stopped, when I put out my foot and found that the ground I'd stepped on had no ground at all. I fell into a deep, shadowy pit, and when I tried to fly back up, I found that my jets were gone, nowhere to be found on my armor.

I hit the ground with a thud, and I felt like I'd actually broken myself. It had been a long drop, and a hard one, so I should've expected as much. I pushed myself up as best I could, and crawled over to a wall nearby, leaning against it.

Suddenly, chains burst out of the walls, wrapping themselves around my wrists and ankles. Then, the ground started shaking as if there was a great earthquake taking place right outside this hole.

I looked up, and got my final clue that something was very, VERY wrong here. Standing, or better described as towering, above the top of the pit, was Makuta, in the body we'd so long believed to be the universe.

Omniscient P.O.V.

The guard yawned. She was sitting outside the two cells in which they were keeping the fallen Glatorian and Agori. Her and her partner had searched their memories using their powers of the mind, and now had them trapped in an illusion where they'd encounter many of them. They'd made one that would hold without their focus, but they still needed to be close enough to the prisoners for it to keep its hold on them.

"Getting sleepy?" the other guard asked.

"Yes, very," she replied, yawning again. "We've been down here for hours, sitting on a bench next to two cages of sleeping Glatorian. How am I supposed to feel?"

"Alert," her partner answered. "Prisoners have gotten smart and gotten out of our illusions before; we need to be ready in case one of them manages to."

She nodded, but her eyes showed that she was still drowsy. There was nothing interesting about any of these people, except for some of the memories they'd used in the illusion.

A giant robot was something you definitely didn't see every day.

And the seven who had been captured outside that day had odd memories of what seemed to be another world entirely, full of a substance like that which caused the Core War so many millenia ago. Not the same, but very much like it.

The last thing was the other one. The eleventh member who'd supposedly been in this group. They'd known of his existence since they interoggated the red Agori, tormenting him with their manipulating of his mind until he gave them the answers they were looking for, and by sifting through the memories of all three.

The seven they'd just caught had memories of him as well, but they'd been unable to find out what had happened to him. They could assume that he would be coming after them here, the foolish move that it was, or that he'd ran away and abandoned them to their fate.

She shrugged it off; the missing Agori was a problem for the other guards to handle. She turned her attention back to cell, and the prisoners, and then started to doze off again...

Tahu's P.O.V.

Still chained to the ground, the giant figure that was Makuta was pulling me up and away from the bottom of the pit. Despite the great amount of strength I knew the robot had, the chains failed to break.

He pulled me further and further, the chains just stretching more, and leaving me feeling like I was about to be torn in two. Finally, out of either mercy or boredom, Makuta released me, dropping me back to the bottom of the pit. I pulled myself back into my position against the wall, when a swarm of literally hundreds of Kraata swarmed into the pit, surrounding me and covering all traces of the existence of the floor under me.

They swarmed the pit, filling it like a bucket of water. They rose, I rose, and then I reached the end of the chain. They rose above me, burying me under hundreds more Kraata. Moments ago, I'd felt like I was breaking, now I was drowning.

More and more joined the pile, cutting me off from the sandstorm in the sky. The last thing I saw was a glimpe of the red glow of Makuta's eye. And maybe, just maybe, I saw a faint glimpse of something else, completely unrelated to this in any way I could see.

In Makuta's eye, for just a moment, I saw the face of a Sister of the Skrall.

But, just as soon as it started, it ended, and the Kraata covered up the last passage to the surface. My vision started to ripple, twist, and turn again, and then I started to black out.

_Not again... _I thought, just as everything went black.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_After the long wait for 14, I wanted to do something special for everyone who waited on it. So, here's 15._

_I had fun messing with Tahu's head in this one. I wanted to explore the powers of the Sisters of the Skrall, so here's Tahu's Nightmare, the illusion they created for him. Hopefully, I did a good job with it._


	17. Chapter 16

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 16

Tarduk moved silently along the wall, keeping his attention on all directions around him should a guard appear. These dungeon corridors were directly below the tower above, and covered a much larger area. The tower had looked to be fairly new, and also a little unstable, as if it had been built to be used as a stop for a day or so. But, these tunnels said otherwise.

Tarduk came to a fork in the tunnels, and listened at both sides to try predicting what he'd find at either end. On his left, he heard nothing, and it was silent. On the right, he heard a faint sound of what he thought was snoring. He looked down the right corridor and could see the outline of two Skrall sitting on a wore robes similar to the guards the Toa'd fought outside the tower entrance.

He guessed that if there were guards down here, there'd be prisoners: the others. He had to think of some way to get rid of the guards and get them out. But how?

Tahu's P.O.V.

I woke up again, this time finding myself in some kind of tunnel. It had been a long time since I'd been here, but I recognized the place I was in the tunnels where my team and I had formed the Toa Kaita, and battled the Manas crabs and Shadow Toa.

I started walking to the center of the room. I reached it, and suddenly a thousand arms burst out of the ground. A few grabbed my ankles, starting to pull me into the once solid, now sandy floor of the chamber. I tried using my elemental powers to force them back, but found that when I tried, I couldn't use them. I looked up, and suddenly, lining the room, were the Bohrok Kal, each one holding my Toa Nuva symbol.

The arms pulled me down into the sand, and I could feel it filling my mouth and throat, choking me, suffocating me. I was pulled down further and further, until I fell into a place I didn't recognize.

I looked around and saw mountains surrounding me. I also was surprised to find that the sand in my throat and mouth was now gone; I couldn't even feel the pain it had caused just a little while ago.

I took a few steps forward, when suddenly the world around me flashed, giving me a brief view of something completely different. One moment I was standing in the mountain valley, then suddenly I saw metal bars, and two Sisters of the Skrall. Then, I was back in the mountains, the others having somehow appeared around the area.

"What the-?" Pohatu exclaimed. "Where did all of you come from?"

"What are you speak-talking about?" Lewa said. "You're all the ones who appeared here."

"I think the real question," Kopaka interrupted. "Is did all of you see it?"

"See what, brother?" Onua asked him.

"The bars," I commented. Kopaka nodded.

"i saw them," Vastus said. "With the guards on the other side?"

Everyone commented, saying they'd seen the same thing, or something close to it.

"What do you think that it was, then?" Crotesius asked.

"Reality," Kopaka said simply. "Think about it; all these visions I'VE had have been of something in the past, in my memories. All turned into a nightmare. This is one big illusion."

"That would explain much," I said. "Why I saw the Kal, our Nuva Symbols, Makuta... they're just illusions that those Skrall conjured up."

"So we'll need some kind of wake up call," Onua said.

"But what could we use to do that?" Gali asked.

"The flash," Tarix said. "Whatever caused it, is what we need, only on a larger scale. It must've been something distracting the Skrall; who else could be conjuring this illusion but them?"

"It is them," Crotesius said. "They used their tricks on me; that's why they knew about you guys."

"Wait," Gali said. "Where's Tarduk?"

We all looked around, trying to see if we could find the Jungle Agori. No one saw him anywhere.

"It was him," I said. "He did something to distract the guards, if only for a moment. He caused that flash."

Pohatu nodded. "If it wasn't though, I have no clue what it could have been."

"We'll have to hope he can spark another flash," Vastus said. "And hope that it lasts long enough for us to get out from behind those bars..."

Omniscient P.O.V.

Tarduk hid behind the corner. He had just knocked one of the torches lining the walls onto the floor, and it had gotten the guard's attention. He'd knocked it down and ran right back to the corner, hiding behind the turn. One of the two guards, the one he'd seen sleeping, had walked over and put the torch back up. She then just walked right back to the bench.

He needed another distraction; something bigger. Something that would get rid of them, but give him the opening he wanted to get to the cell and let the others, who he knew were there, out.

He tiptoed down the left corridor, from which he'd heard silence earlier. At the end, he found a large pile of empty crates. He dug through them to find that some of them weren't actually empty. He pulled out some planks, some nails, some hammers; all sorts of tools one would use when building something out of wood. He kept digging, and eventually found a robe, like the ones the guards wore. He took the robe, hoping it would help him get around easier than he would without it, and kept looking around the hallway.

He found another passage way, that he followed along for a little while. It took him back around in a circle to the cell where the guards were sitting on the bench. The one was still asleep, but the other looked alert.

Tarduk peeked around the corner, and tried to see inside the cell they were guarding. Sure enough, just as he'd expected, the Toa, Glatorian, and Crotesius were sitting along the walls. He started to think about a possible plan. He was back tracking his steps along the corridor, back toward the crates. He was lucky the alert guard hadn't spotted him; that would have been the end of any chance of escape.

He got back to the crates. He thought of different plans, and finally came to a decision. He'd knock over the crates, then bolt through the side passage, the led around to the cell. Hoping the guards, or one at least, would leave their post, he'd handle the one remaining, should only one go, to the best of his power. He'd then help the others in the cell to escape, and they'd make their escape plan from there.

_I really hope this works... _he thought, as he pushed over two of the crates.

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	18. Chapter 17

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 17

We stood in a circle in the mountain valley, trying to pass the time. After coming to the realization that we were all in an illusion, we started thinking of possible ways to get out of it. We couldn't manage to come up with any, though. All we could think of was Tarduk pulling a trick like he had a short while ago.

Kopaka had thought of trying to use his Kanohi Akaku to try seeing out of the illusion. We were skeptical, as it was a Mask of X-Ray vision, rather than a Mask of Truth like Axxon's, which I could imagine working. We decided to give it a shot though, and we were surprised to find that it had actually worked.

Kopaka was able to see through the dream that the Sisters had created, able to see the cell bars and the Sisters outside the illusion; the closest thing to seeing reality we had so far, other than the flash.

We twiddled our thumbs for a little while, until the illusion started to flash in and out, in and out...

"What's going on?" Lewa asked.

"Well, I'm sure all of you saw it, but I saw it more clearly; something's distracted the guards again," Kopaka said. "Whatever Tarduk did this time, it's had a lot more potent of an effect."

The illusion then started to melt away. It looked that way to us, anyways... The images of mountains, the sky, and the ground below started to fade from the edges and tips to black, the darkness making its way to the center and us.

"Are we waking up?" Vastus asked.

"I'm not sure..." Kopaka replied. "But the guards are gone; they left their post, so I'd have to assume so."

"What about Tarduk? Do you see him out there?" I asked Kopaka.

"Not yet, but I have a feeling that I will soon."

Omniscient P.O.V.

Tarduk slowly poked his head around the corner to see that both the guards were gone... but, his distraction had alerted even more guards than he wanted, and the other end of the tunnel was filled with them. His distraction had worked in an unwanted way; he knew it would alert the Sisters to the presence, but he only wanted the two watching the cell to go. Instead, it had summoned what looked like a good fraction of the Tower's inhabitants.

He'd have to ignore it, hope they didn't notice him. He'd just have to deal with the unintended problem.

He stepped around the corner and looked into the cell; the others were lined up along the walls, chains on their wrists and ankles. Tarduk turned his attention to the bench where the guards had been sitting just a short while ago, trying to spot a key of some kind.

On the wall next to the bench was a shelf, on top of which Tarduk found the keys he was looking for. He grabbed the keyring they were all attached to But before he was able to try any, he noticed a large, rolled up, piece of paper that had fallen off the shelf when he grabbed the key. He picked it up and took a look at it; whether the SIsters had more of these, he didn't know, but he had to take this one, because it was a map.

He was able to see the northern edge of the Iptasaer Jungle they'd passed through, the cave that the Toa Nuva had explored a day or so ago, and even more land they hadn't seen yet. It ended at the top edge of the map, where there was what looked like an ocean, probably connected to Aqua Magna, or possibly the former-moon itself.

He stopped looking at the map, and put it in a satchel he took off of the shelf. He started to work on opening the cell, and he eventually found a key that worked, stepping into the cell, looking toward the guards again first. They started to turn around, and he quickly jumped into the cell.

As he was unlocking the first of the chains, the ones on Toa Onua, everyone started to wake up. None of them said anything, apparently knowing there might be guards near. Tarduk knew there were, but hoped they weren't close enough to interupt him before he got everyone loose.

He eventually found the right key for Onua's chains, and freed him from them. Onua then, rather than waiting on Tarduk to do the job, activated his Kanohi Pakari to break everyone's chains and save time.

As it happened, that was the right thing to do. Right as he broke the last set of chains that bound Tarix to the wall, the Sister Guards showed up right outside the cell. Before they could react, a wall of earth rose up out of the ground, trapping them inside.

"We should probably go..." Onua said in a grim tone.

Tahu's P.O.V.

We'd gotten out of the illusion, and then the chains, but now we had a bigger problem to deal with: getting out of the Sisters' Tower. Onua had dealt with the two guards outside the cell, but from what Tarduk had told us, there were more in the area. The Sisters could probably alert eachother of our escape, too, with their mind powers, meaning we could have the whole of them looking for us in minutes.

"It'll be dangerous to go out through the front door," I said. Tarduk had said the dungeon we were in was underground, so I had an idea on how we'd get out ourselves. "Onua, if you would?"

Onua nodded to me, knowing exactly what I meant. He stepped cautiously out of the cell. He walked over to the corner of the tunnel, and started shaping a new one using his elemental powers. After a moment, we had a wide tunnel leading to the surface, no Sisters all through it, to use as our exit.

Before we could start up the tunnel, the Sisters had seen us and were on our tail. The other guards Tarduk had said investigated his distraction knew we were loose and didn't intend to let us get away. Whether they tried any of their mind tricks, I didn't know, but we didn't stick around to see what they'd do.

We bolted through the passage, Onua and Pohatu forming walls behind us, and changing the tunnel where need be. Sometimes, in case the Sisters got through the defenses we'd made behind us, we'd make a new tunnel, creating turns, then sealing up the entrance behind us, leaving the tunnel going straight up for them to follow, away from our real path.

After several twists and turns, we hit the surface, conveniently near where we'd left the vehicles. We made our way over to them, and quickly prepared ourselves to ship off.

"Why is it that we keep getting sucked into the underground?" Pohatu said. "Sure, its got lots of rocks, stones, things in my element down there, but I'm starting to get sick of it..."

"We all are, brother," Lewa said.

"Yes, we are," I said. "But forgetting that, it's time to decide where to go now."

"Well, I've recorded most everything up to the jungle," Takanuva said. "Along with crude renderings of this area, based on your descriptions. And we've covered quite a bit of ground since we set out... how long ago?"

"A week ago. Maybe two," Kopaka replied.

"They'll probably be wondering where we are, back in New Atero," Onua said. "Maybe we should turn back? We've seen more than enough to tell us its dangerous out here."

"I don't know... our job is to go as far north as possible, only turning back when we've reached an ocean, or other impassable obstacle..." I said.

It was then that Tarduk joined the conversation. "I have something, that might help us decide where we're going next..." He reached into the small satchel he said he grabbed in the Tower. He pulled out a sheet of paper from it.

"It's a map... I found it with the keys and the bag," he told us.

I looked at it, seeing that the Sisters had mapped out the whole area on it. I saw the Jungle, the Tower, the hills, plains, lake, and even an ocean, to the north. An ocean that would be impassable, the way we were equipped.

"Well," I said. "The Sisters did our job for us. I guess we're heading home."

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	19. Chapter 18

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 18

We were heading home.

Back to the United Village, after all our time travelling out here, we were going home, back to the Matoran, Turaga, the other Toa, and everyone else in the city. Takanuva had all of our findings, in written and drawn forms, for most, as well as the map Tarduk had taken from the Sisters of the Skrall. We had everything that the Agori elders and the Turaga had asked for.

So, our job complete, we'd turned around and headed back to the incomplete city. There were other reasons we were glad to have turned around finally, like running low on supplies, hopes that we wouldn't have to deal with any more enemies like the Skrall and iptasaer, and my need of a new weapon, after the iptasaer shredded my rotator blade.

We'd escaped the Sisters' Tower just a short while before sunrise, so it was the perfect timing for us to head off. We'd climbed aboard the chariots, Crotesius on his Cendox, and we were on our way. We were making good time, too. By the time the sun started setting, we had reached the jungle where we first encountered the iptasaer.

We came to a stop before entering, deciding it was as good a place as any to stop for the night. Along with that, we didn't want to pass through the place with our memories of it after dark.

"We have two options," Tarix said. "We can either head straight through the jungle like we did last time, or, we can make our way around it, and perhaps map out more of the area. The Sisters' map does end right about here, after all."

"If we cut straight through, we'll be closer to home sooner," Pohatu said. "But Tarix, you make a good point. Our job was to map what we could of the northern regions of the planet, and we've really only mapped a straight course, from New Atero up to the Tower."

"The largest map we have is the one I took," Tarduk put in.

"We'll make our way around. Two groups," I said. "Half of us around the east edge, half around the west."

"Well which group will take Takanuva?" asked Vastus. "And who'll be able to do the maps and writings for the other group?"

"Hm... any of you think you'd be able to do that job?" I asked them all.

"Well I suppose I could," Pohatu said. "Being from the group of carvers, I guess I have something of an eye for detail."

"Then one of us gets Takanuva, the other Pohatu, I suppose," I said. "We'll decide who goes where, and who they go with, in the morning. For now, everyone get some rest."

Omniscient P.O.V.

A small insect skittered across the jungle floor, when suddenly a large foot came from above and stomped it into the swampy ground. The Skrall ignored the insect whose life he'd abruptly ended, and kept moving, following the others.

The Skrall trio was here under orders by Tuma; after his defeat by the, "Red Glatorian" whose name he failed to learn, he'd spent his time trying to track the group he was travelling in, hoping to find them and be able to get back at him. He'd sent them to do exactly this, and see if they'd been through the jungle recently.

They came to clearing; a lake sat in the middle of it, stretching from one end to the other. They walked around the edge, and came to a path leading to an island in the lake's center. From their viewpoint, they could see the island itself, and a large rock formation on top of it. One of the Skrall signaled for another to go take a look, and it set off toward the island to do so.

He circled the formation, finding one side filled with a large pile of rubble, that looked like it had broked off from the part of the rock above it. He signaled the other two to come over and take a look as well, which they did. When they got over, they started to move what rubble they could from the pile.

They weren't surprised when they found a tunnel, going down beneath the surface, behind it. The trio walked down, following it, until they were so deep that they couldn't see the light at the entrance. They were at a crossroads, now, that had strangely smooth walls, as if they'd been carved.

One of these walls, however, was flawed. On it, was a carving that didn't fit the rest. The Skrall didn't recognize it, but it definitely stuck out. They walked just a little ways forward through one of the tunnels, and found another. Then later, another. They followed them back to the first one, and started back up toward the surface.

They stepped back out into the jungle, leaving the rubble moved away from the cave entrance. They crossed back over onto the shore, and started back through the jungle again. The marks in those walls were fresh, all three of them could tell that much. Exactly how fresh, they estimated a week or two. Three at most.

This was the sort of clue they'd wanted to find. As new as it was, it could easily be a sign that the Red One's group had been through here. It wasn't something the Skrall recognized, so it couldn't be another group of rogues. Their 'Sisters,' who were currently fortified to the north wouldn't recognize it either, so it couldn't be them. The only other group they knew in the area who couldn've done it...

They discussed the issue for a short while, and made their way back through the jungle, in the direction of their group's current camp; a cave, found in an area of the mountains that went farther north than most of the others. The Skrall, formerly most powerful tribe on Bara Magna, now reduced to living in a dripping, dirty cave. More ironic was that when the Skrall had, at one time, abandoned their original home, they went south. Now they were heading back north, from their new one, after their defeat by the Glatorian, Agori, and their other allies.

That area was farther off in another direction, however. They were farther west, in a mainly plain area that had come about surely after the fall of the mechanical being that had arrived on Bara Magna a long while ago.

They reached the cavern, went inside, and prepared to confront Tuma. They walked up to him, standing far in the back of the tunnel, and put the sum of their findings in three simple words.

"We've found them."

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_

_Now then... Here's that part of the chapter were I always add my own two cents and throw in a little explanation as to why I suck at keeping to any form of schedule and take forever to post these. Well, simple answer for THIS one, is that I kept changing my mind on how I wanted it to go. That will be all. Thank you for your patience._


	20. Chapter 19

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 19

We sped across the sands, rounding the jungle's edge. We were a long way from it, but it was still visible in the east. On the other side was the other half of our team, working on a makeshift map of the visible region. We were going to meet after passing the entire length of the jungle, planning on running into eachother and once again heading south together once we finished our seperate maps.

In the west were some dunes, same as the ones I'd seen before Bara Magna and the moons had been restored to one planet. We didn't need to go too close to the region to tell it was just another desert. The curious thing of it, though, was that there was a single random sand storm going through it, seemingly in our direction. We shrugged it off, though, knowing it to be no more than your average desert weather.

As we continued on, the sand storm still seemed to trail us, but began to dissipate as it neared the desert's edge. As the sun set, it outlined what remained of the sand cloud, and we were shocked at what else it showed us.

In the cloud were about ten shadowy figures, one of them seeming to tower over the others. As I looked closer, I recognized the shapes to be those of the Skrall, and the large one as Tuma.

"Step on it!" I yelled to Vastus, who was with us driving our chariot. "It's Tuma, and his Skrall!"

While Vastus obeyed, he still questioned me after we were moving faster, "Why does that worry you? We handled that lot once before, no reason we can't do it again."

"Well we hadn't cut the group in two halves, last time, had we?" Kopaka said to him. "Pohatu, forget the map. Aim your blaster, we'll try to deal with them from here before they catch up."

"But the map-" Pohatu started, but Kopaka cut him off.

"I think that getting home in one piece is more important than that piece of paper, Pohatu."

I took aim with my own blaster, wondering why the Skrall were trying to pull this stunt again. And for another matter, I recalled them retreating before to the south-east, to the mountains. How had they gotten to our north-west, in a desert?

Crotesius and Tarduk, who'd been the last two members of our half, followed on the Cendox, trying to keep up with our now faster pace. Kopaka, Pohatu, and I opened fire on the pursuing Skrall, knocking down one or two, only for them to get back on their Rock Steeds.

They came closer and closer to us, despite our increases in speed. They fired their own projectiles, their explosive Thornax, at us once we were in range. He took a few hits, but kept going, though slowed down trying to avoid them. Tuma's steed ran up next to our chariot, and he lept off of it, right toward us. He swung his sword at Vastus, who's attempt to dodge caused us to swerve into the riderless Rock Steed.

Tuma swung again, this time at me. He knocked me off the back of the chariot, and I rolled into the grassy plains, where I nearly got trampled by the passing Rock Steeds. One of the passing Skrall fired at me as it rode by, but I rolled out of the way and threw a ball of fire back at him. He tumbled off of his Rock Steed, and I stood up, using my boosters to rocket me back toward the pack.

Tarduk and Crotesius seemed to be having a problem with two of Tuma's Skrall. They rode alongside the Cendox, swinging their blades at them, the two of them ducking, or Tarduk blocking with his own small blade. I pulled out my own blade, which I'd been substituting for my shredded rotator blade, and raced toward the four of them.

I rammed one Rock Steed, which fell over and dropped its rider onto the plain, and swung the small sword at the second when he tried to strike the two Agori. I blocked the Skrall's blade and pushed back, getting an opening and swinging at him. The attack made a large slash in his chest armor, and he tumbled off his Rock Steed just as the others did.

"You two alright?" I asked Tarduk and Crotesius. Tarduk responded with a thumbs-up, while Crotesius kept his focus on steering the Cendox. I turned back o the rest of the Skrall, as well as Tuma. Pohatu and Kopaka we're holding up against Tuma for the time, so I aimed at another of his Skrall.

Using my elemental powers, and good old fashioned melee combat, I handled most of the Skrall, Tarduk using the Cendox's mounted Thornax Launcher to down one, as well. I turned once again to Tuma, who'd retreated from on top of the chariot to one of the Rock Steeds. He was now just using Thornax's to hammer away at the vehicle, hoping to stop it, most likely, while Pohatu and Kopaka did their best to block and return fire, while Vastus still tried to avoid it.

I flew towards Tuma, and swung the broadside of my sword at the back of his head. He fell forward with a grunt, rubbing the back of his head, but quickly responded by swinging his shield at me, saw spinning. He managed to slice a part of my lower leg, and I fell right back down to the ground. Holding the wounded area, I tried standing up, but the best I could do was a kneil.

I gathered some elemental energy, and launched a fireball at his Rock Steed. His mount jumped out of the way fast enough to avoid it, however, and he fired a Thornax back at me. His Steed swerved around, Tuma facing me. The creature charged at me, and I did my best to roll out of the way, though my now injured leg hindered that.

I rolled enough to avoid the full force of the charge, but the creature stomped on my foot (the same side as my injured leg, ironically), and further crippled me. Just as it charged again, the Cendox sped by and Tarduk grabbed my shoulder, pulling me aboard the small vehicle.

"Thank you, Tarduk," I said. "We have to catch up to the others, and meet with the rest of the team."

"This thing can only go so fast, and the extra weight doesn't help," he said.

I turned back to see Tuma readying his Steed for another charge at the Cendox, and replied, "Well however fast that is, it's not enough." I tried to get back in the air, again, but somehow my leg injuries were drawing the energy I'd need to get flying. I landed right back on the Cendox, pain coarsing even more through the injury.

The Skrall Leader was headed our way now. He'd hit the vehicle head-on, with enough force to topple it, and cause even more injuries, to me and the Agori. I took my temporary blade, and threw it as hard and as fast as I could at Tuma's steed, the blade piercing one of the beasts leg's and sending it toppling down. Tuma was thrown off into the grass like the fallen Skrall before him. He tried to get the Steed back up, but to no avail. He tried following us on foot, but the Cendox was still faster than he was. He finally just dropped down to the ground again as we watched him vanish on the horizon.

When the others saw we'd taken down the last of the Skrall, they slowed down to wait for us. We reached them, and they were quick to point out my injury.

"How did you manage to mangle yourself like THAT?" Pohatu asked.

"Nothing major; just a razor blade cut of my leg, and a Rock Steed crushing my foot," I said sarcastically.

"Haha," he replied. "I don't that's something to joke about, though, brother. What help do we have right now to deal with that?"

"Kopaka can put it on ice," I said.

"That's not an actual solution, though, just a delay," Kopaka added.

"Oh, come on, there's been worse before. The Rahkshi Poison, our loss to the Piraka..."

"Well..." Pohatu started.

"I'm fine," I said. "That's not our top concern right now, anyways. What I want to know is how those Skrall got over here, got past us. How did they get to the desert that quick? Without us seeing? Last we saw them, they were hightailing it for the mountains, in the other direction."

"I was wondering that, too..." Vastus said. "They'd have to have gone much, MUCH faster than we'd been going, and considering they were on animals... it just doesn't seem possible."

"We'll solve that mystery in time, I'm sure," Pohatu said. "We really should finish this map and regroup. We don't want to be surprised like that again, in halved numbers."

"He's right," Kopaka said. "We held them back that time, but that was mostly you. And considering your leg now..."

"I want to get back together, too, and fast," I said. I hopped on the chariot, as did the other three, and the Agori back onto the Cendox. The damage Tuma caused the chariot caused us to get to a slow start, but we picked up the speed again, and we're back on track soon enough.

_Omniscient P.O.V._

Tuma stomped across the plains toward one of the other fallen Skrall. The Skrall was sitting up, gathering its thoughts, when Tuma walked over, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him off the ground.

"You said they'd never see us coming! You said we'd overpower them with our greater numbers!" Tuma yelled at him.

"Th-that was before we were slowed in the tunnels, before we lost those Skrall and Agori to those... insects!" the Skrall replied.

"That is no excuse!" Tuma yelled back. "Your group recommended the tunnels, got us lost in them! Your group didn't know the insects were a threat!"

"Th-they were insignificant bugs! What could we expect!"

Tuma swung the Skrall and threw him to the ground, stalking off, thoughts of revenge, failure, and the future once again forming in his mind.

_That labyrinth still has a use, _he thought. _I need only to figure out what it is..._

_I can't believe I actually got this typed up! After how long, I finally made this chapter exist! Sorry for the wait!_

_Stay tuned to ToaChristor on deviantArt, or Toa Christor on this site for the continuation of Tahu's Journal!_


	21. Chapter 20

Tahu's Journal

Chapter 20

After a night's worth of driving, we came to find the others camped out along the jungle's southern edge. They'd stopped for the night, while we'd continued on to make up for the lost time. When we arrived, the sun was beginning to rise, and they were preparing to move on in search for us.

"We were hoping you'd catch up before we got going again," Tarix said to us when we stopped our vehicles next to them.

Pohatu was the one who voiced the question all of us had in mind; "None of you happened to notice any... Skrall, one your side of the jungle, did you?"

After he said it, they all gave him a questioning stare. "Why, did you?" Gali asked, looking at each of us for an answer.

"We wouldn't be asking if we had no reason to," Kopaka replied.

"What he means to say..." Vastus cut in. "Is that, yes, we did."

"But last we saw them-" Tarix began, before I finished for him.

"They were headed in the completely opposite direction, we know. That's what's been bothering us the most." Now that I'd drawn everyone's eyes to myself, they noticed my... injury.

"What... what happened to your leg?" Gali said, even though they could all already guess.

"Tuma. He was with them, and he sliced me with his shield. His Rock Steed did the rest of the job for him, though, and pretty much crushed my foot."

"Just further reason to get back to the United Village sooner," Takanuva said.

"Well, I don't know about that," I said. "We've got healing capabilities, don't we?" I looked at Kopaka and Gali. They'd done just fine when I was poisoned by the Rahkshi, why couldn't they do something similar now?

"Well..." Gali started. "Perhaps. That wasn't an actual injury, though, more an ailment..."

"It's at least worth a shot," I shrugged.

And we gave it a shot. Using water from a pool just inside the jungle's edge, they gave the same performance as before, just on the smaller scale of my leg rather than my entire body. It appeared to work well enough, but there was still something about it...

"That at least closed the wound," Kopaka said. "Your foot's a different story, though."

Gali nodded. "The armor on your foot absorbed most of the Rock Steed's stomp -odd that it did any real harm at all-, but we really can't do too much for it; you'll want to get it handled better when we get back."

That was good enough for me. The leg-wound had been a lot worse, so I could deal with this. "Alright then. We may as well get moving; if you have any other questions about our confrontation, you can just ask along the way."

And we were off, again. Not much else happened along the way; the biggest event was Pohatu and Takanuva combining the maps to see what they looked like together. Gali and Lewa questioned a few of us about the attack, too, but that was about it. A good bit of the traveling that day was a relatively laid-back trip, which I welcomed after everything we'd dealt with before now. A day's relaxation never hurt anybody.

We passed through mountainous and forest region we'd passed through when we had just started out. The trees, unsurprisingly, remained on the ground out of our way. We made it through faster than the last time, and after just an hour or so, we could see the silhouette of the United City against the sky coming into view.

It was odd to be back in the city, after all the time we'd spent outside. We didn't even know how long we'd been gone, actually, more focused on the job than the time it took. We estimated 2 weeks, or so. We sped along, past Agori and Matoran alike, toward the city center where the Turaga and Agori elders should be. Most of the people we passed kept focused on their business, and left us to ours. The town was oddly quiet, though we didn't know why.

When we arrived at the city center, we saw a green figure standing just outside, and upon recognizing him, stopped the vehicles right next to him.

"Well, looks who's back?" Turaga Matau said. "Three weeks gone, we thought you'd gotten lost-missing out there."

"The only thing lost up there was our sense of time," Pohatu said. "We thought we'd been gone two."

"Two three, all the same," Turaga Vakama said as he approached us. "However long it took you is unimportant. What is, is whether you did what we sent your to."

Takanuva handed him the map pieces we had. "I hope that they're seperated doesn't matter."

"Not at all, not at all. Come; the others will want to take a look."

Turaga Vakama led us to the other elders; they were arguing about something when we arrived there, though I only heard a bit before they stopped.

"...spotted them as near as the falls to the west! If something's not done, they could pose a serious issue!" I heard the Vulcanus elder, Raanu say.

"Calm yourself! I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, the patrollers can keep them at bay, I'm sure," I heard Turaga Onewa reply.

"You underestimate them! You've not seen what they're capable of!"

"Finish your argument later," Turaga Vakama said as we walked in. "The Toa Nuva have returned, they have the map... or rather, maps..."

"Turaga Matau, what were they arguing about?" I asked him.

"Oh, a few patrollers thought they saw-spotted some Skrall, or something, in the city outskirts."

"Skrall? Here?"

"Yes, yes, now quiet, Tahu, there's other business to do." Matau walked off towards the stands where the elders sat, and took a seat among them.

"Tahu's group has returned with the information we commissioned them for," Vakama started. "And they'll now be briefing us further on their findings."

The eleven of us took turns stepping forward and telling them what we found, beginning with minor things, like unmarked landforms, and moving on to the more significant points, like the Iptasaer and the Skrall.

"Sisters of the Skrall?" an Agori elder I'd yet to meet started. "I've heard the stories about that bunch, we'd be mad to settle near them!"

"And what about those insects? They sound like a much more significant threat than that colony!" one of the Turaga present said.

"Oh, you heard them; it sounds like they dealt with it already," another Agori elder said.

"And if the population grows again?"

"They're machines! How would they manage that?"

And so the argument started again. Turaga Vakama started over towards us, while the other elder's argued, however.

"I think you can all leave now," he sighed. "You've done your part, and now its left to us... once they're all through with their bickering."

Onua opened the door of the chamber, and we all stepped outside. We made our way to the building's entrance, and as we stepped out into the sun light, I started thinking;

How had what there was of the city changed a since we'd left?

How was the city doing, for that matter?

And of course, was our journey worth it? With all of the threats we'd seen and fought up north, was it possible to make stable settlements up there?

All any of us could do was look to the future, to see what answers it would bring. After crossing all that space, fighting the iptasaer, escaping the Sisters of the Skrall, and battling Tuma himself, and his own Skrall, our journey was at its end.

_I'd say what I normally say here, but this is the last actual chapter. It's been a good run, I guess, and if you're looking forward to more Tahu's Journal, I'll be working on an Epilogue to tie up one or two loose ends..._

_After this, though, I'm still trying to think of what to work on next, so suggestions and ideas are welcome!_


	22. Epilogue

Tahu's Journal

Epilogue

We stood once again in the large chamber with the elder's. We were all gathered around a large table, and on it was a large map showing the regions we'd explored, as well as the other Teams sent out from the United City.

It was about a week after we'd returned; I'd spent it by, first, having my foot taken care of; it was as good as new. The rest of my time involved me exploring the city, to see how much had changed. As things would have it, a lot had changed.

They'd started to truly fortify the city, for one thing; guards lined up all along the walls, watchtowers were built, and multiple kinds of weapons were all around the border. I assumed this was the Agori elders response to the rogue Skrall sightings we'd heard about since we returned.

The other big change was the Agori and Matoran themselves. They'd apparently had some... problems, getting along, in the time we'd been gone. There'd been fights, arguments, and apparently a couple of riots by some Matoran against the Agori. The elders were working on a solution, and decided on simply keeping them seperate from eachother in different villages.

Back on the subject of the villages, then, on the map were many markings, indicating dangerous regions (like most everywhere my team had gone), and where the ideal spots for villages seemed to be.

"...and we've already got some Matoran and Toa on their way here," said Turaga Onewa, pointing at one of the markings. "Most of the groups headed to the others are ready to leave."

Turaga Onewa was the next to speak. "Most of the locations of these colonies will be relatively short journeys, for now; a day or so trip at most."

"Once they've been established," Turaga Whenua continued. "We'll expand further. In a sense, the colonies now are just 'Jumping-off points' farther out than the United City."

"You're not sending all of the city's Toa and Glatorian out I hope?" Pohatu asked them.

"No, of course not," Turaga Vakama said. "We of course need to defend the city itself; we're sending just teams of two or three to each of the new villages. We expect they'll be sufficient defense for the moment."

"As for the Matoran and Agori themselves," Turaga Nokama said. "They're all volunteers."

"What will my team be doing, then?" I asked them.

"You'll be remaining here in the United City," Raanu said. "Unless, you want to be sent off to the new villages?"

"Whatever you feel we should do is fine," I replied.

It was at this point that a lone Matoran came into the room. We all turned to see him, and he began to say something.

"Um... there's... there's been another riot..." he stuttered.

The elders' faces turned to expressions of surprise. Turaga Dume said to everyone, "Meeting adjourned." He and the elder's walked over to the Matoran, who started leading them out of the chamber, likely to the scene of the riot.

When we went to follow, Raanu turned back and said to us, "It will already have happened. Your help won't be needed for the time being." He then proceeded to leave with the other elders.

I tried listening for any talking they might've done outside the chamber, but I heard nothing; the elders and the Matoran were silent.

The other Toa and Glatorian who'd been at the meeting didn't seem to be paying any further attention to the elders, talking once again about the villages.

I was able to hear a small bit of the conversation outside the chamber as they walked away; "We couldn't... the Matoran who started it... they got away... we don't know where... where to..." the Matoran said.

"We haven't caught the Matoran who started the last two, either though, have we?" I heard Turaga Dume say. "I wouldn't see it as unlikely if the culprits were the same..."

They walked out of earshot, and I couldn't hear any more. My team stood their looking at the door, but after a short while we walked away as well, some of us going to talk to the others in the room with us, and the rest going to look at the map once more.

As for myself, however... I left. Hopefully the elder's knew what they were doing; three riots so far, and until they caught whoever was responsible, there'd likely be more. Add to that the yet to be established colonies, the Skrall sightings, and the old troublemakers from our own "universe" who'd yet to be found.

I was confident of course that the problems would be dealt with, but if the elders weren't ready to have Toa (or Glatorian either, I suppose) work on solving the riots, then it would likely take a while... Only time would tell, though.

Omniscient P.O.V.

As the elders approached the scene of the riot, many of the inhabitants of the United City helped them with the injured Agori, while others stood on the sidelines watching.

Among them stood a Ta-Matoran. When the crowd dispersed, two other Matoran approached him.

"Let's get going, Rohm," one of them said. "If we're here too long, someone might get suspicious."

"Right," Rohm, the Ta-Matoran said. "We don't want to be caught before we've made any major impact, do we?"

The trio walked away down the city street, and exited through one of the gates they'd set up; outside of the gate, a short walk away, there was a chariot hidden in a small ditch in the ground.

"Take us back to the cave," he said to the Matoran in the driver's seat. The chariot sped off, carrying the three Matoran away from their crime, and towards plans for their next one.


End file.
